A Comedy of Errors
by Goddess33
Summary: Seto makes a little mistake, which snowballs into a big disaster.
1. A Comedy of Errors

A Comedy of Errors

**

School was over for the week, and all the students ran joyously out of the building to enjoy every moment of freedom they were afforded. Yugi and his friends were no different, sprinting almost as if to put as much distance between them and the classroom as they could.

"So Yugi," Joey said as they finally slowed down, panting for breath on the sidewalk. "Was thinking of maybe going out for burgers, or pizza, or Chinese food… or all three! You up for it?"

"Watching you pig out for the next three hours?" Yugi said with a laugh. "Mmm, tempting. Sorry, I'll have to pass. Seto will be by to pick me up in a few minutes; we were going to see a movie, then maybe have dinner. You guys go ahead though."

"Sure you don't want us to wait with you?" Ryou asked. "You know how traffic is this time of day, he might be a few minutes late."

"Seto is _never_ late," Yugi said, smiling proudly. "Don't worry about me. Besides, I can always call Yami if something happens…"

"Don't count on it," Bakura warned with a grin, wrapping his arms around Yami possessively. "Yami will be busy. Very busy. With all the noise he'll be making, he may not hear your call…"

Yami shot Bakura a dark look, indignantly removing the tomb robber's arms, then smiling patiently at Yugi. "Of course you can call me, Yugi. You know I'll never be too busy to help if you need me."

Bakura glared and folded his arms, grumbling. "It had better be a _dire_ emergency in that case…"

Yugi laughed nervously at the scowl on Bakura's face. "Don't worry, Bakura. I know better than to interrupt your private time. I promise."  

"Well if you're sure you'll be alright, we'll see you later," Joey said, heading down the street with the others, waving back at his friend. Yugi waved back, then sat down on the curb to wait for his boyfriend.

And wait…

…and wait…

…and wait.

After the first fifteen minutes, Yugi started on his homework. He could at least get some of it done while he waited. It wasn't until he finished the very last math problem that he looked at his watch.

An hour and a half? Had it really been that long? Something was definitely wrong; Seto should have been there long before that. Yugi dug through his bag for his cell phone, and dialed Seto's office. 

**

Seto stared in frustration at the computer screen in front of him. The entire day's work stared back at him from the brightly lit screen, a perfectly written program code. His gaze scoured the equations and coding again, for what may have been the millionth time of the day. He couldn't find a single flaw.

And yet when he tried to _run_ the program… it crashed. Error screen city, little automated blips of warnings and alerts, asking him to please reboot the machine. The thing did everything short of bursting into flames. And if he hadn't personally built this computer, he was fairly sure it would have done that too.

_Somewhere_ there was a defect, the variables didn't add up, or _something_. He just had to find it first, so he could fix it. Determined, he started from the beginning of the coding, and checked it again.

"Mr. Kaiba?"

It took Seto a second or two to recognize his intercom had gone off as his secretary paged him. Rubbing his weary eyes, he muttered, "What?"

Over the intercom, his secretary's voice sounded hesitant, but she answered, "You have a call holding on line one, sir, it's-" 

"I told you to hold my calls!" Seto snapped. How was he supposed to get his program fixed with interruptions like answering the phone? 

"I know sir, but-" 

"I'm busy!" He hit the button on the intercom, shutting it off before she could even tell him who it was that was calling. He'd let her take care of whatever excuses needed to be made to the caller. That's what she was paid for. Seto returned to work on his program, forgetting about the secretary and the caller almost immediately.

The secretary sighed as she picked the phone back up and took the caller off hold. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Kaiba is not to be disturbed. Would you care to leave a message?" 

"No," Yugi murmured. "No message. Thanks." He hung up the phone, tucking the cell phone back into his bag, and stuffing in his books and homework as well.

_Not to be disturbed?_ Seto had never refused his calls before, never called him a _disturbance_. Of course, he'd never been late picking Yugi up before, either. Was Seto mad at him?

He couldn't be, Yugi reasoned as he got up and started to walk home. Yugi had just seen Seto this morning, when Seto had promised to pick him up after school. So that couldn't possibly be it… could it?

His house was dark when he got there, but he knew Yami was there. Yugi dug through his bag a minute for his keys, before his fingers encountered the small hole in the bottom of the bag, just big enough for a key ring to fall through. Just perfect. Some day this was turning out to be. Well. At least it wasn't raining.

Storm clouds on the horizon rumbled ominously. Yugi glowered at them, then knocked loudly on the door. A moment later the porch light came on, and Yami opened the door.

"Yugi?" Yami blinked at him in surprise. "I thought you were out with Kaiba…"

"I was _supposed_ to be…" Yugi muttered as he walked down the hall. "But plans change, I guess." 

Yami watched Yugi walk down the hall thoughtfully… until he realized what room Yugi was heading for. "Yugi wait! Don't go in there, Bakura is-"

"Yugi?!"

"Bakura! Put some _clothes_ on!"

"-waiting for me…" Yami finished faintly.

**

It was getting very late when Seto finally sat back and watched his program run. It wasn't perfect yet, but it didn't crash anymore. There were still a few modifications he needed to make to it, but now that he'd found the problem with his coding, they should be fairly simple.

His stomach growled in irritation, choosing that moment to point out that with all the work he'd been doing, he'd forgotten one or two important meals of the day. Seto glared, as if he could frighten his growling stomach into silence. It didn't work. 

Food was definitely in order. Seto glanced at the clock, realizing just how late it was. Food could wait a minute more; he really ought to call Mokuba and tell him he'd be home much later than usual. Mokuba tended to worry about him more often than was necessary. 

Mokuba picked up on the second ring, but sounded surprised to hear it was Seto. "Hey big brother."

"I'm going to be late coming home tonight," Seto said. "This program I'm working on is more obstinate than I thought it would be."

"You're still at work?" Mokuba asked. "I thought you and Yugi were going out tonight. Did he cancel?"

Seto froze, eyes widening. Yugi. He was supposed to have picked Yugi up from school. He'd forgotten all about it. 

"Oh _no_…" Seto groaned. "Mokuba. I _forgot_."

"You forgot about your own boyfriend?" Mokuba asked. "That's not like you at all."

"I know! But I was working, and I just didn't even think about it…" Seto sat back in his chair, needing its support for the moment. "That was probably him trying to call me earlier too…" 

"Come home and get some rest," Mokuba advised him. "You can go see Yugi tomorrow. It's too late to go see him now."

"You're right," Seto murmured. "I'll be home in a few minutes. I'll go see Yugi tomorrow morning."

**

It rained throughout the night. By the morning it had cleared, leaving the streets wet and glistening in the morning sunlight. Everything smelled fresh and damp, new.

Seto knocked again on Yugi's door. Maybe it was too early for the occupants to be up. After a moment, he was just about to knock again, but the door opened.

"Kaiba? What do you want?" Bakura demanded, leaning against the doorframe.

"Is Yugi home?" Seto asked, ignoring the tomb robber's question.

"Yeah," Bakura said with a maddening grin. "But he's _not to be disturbed_." Laughing at Seto's stunned expression, Bakura slammed the door in his face.

"Who was that?" Yami asked, pouring cereal as Bakura wandered into the kitchen, still laughing. 

"Door-to-door salesman," Bakura said, starting to dig through the fridge. "Selling vacuum cleaners or something. I really didn't catch it."

Yami frowned. "You didn't send them to the shadow realm, did you? I told you to stop doing that…" 

***

Author's note; Yes, I know I have another fanfiction currently in progress. I haven't quit with my Inu-Yasha story, "Hear No Evil." But I missed writing Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfics!


	2. Familiar Faces

Dear Readers; This story may be (probably very likely to be) greatly out of character. But you people probably already assumed that since it's one of _my_ stories, right? Anyway. Thought I'd say it. 

Familiar Faces

**

The Motou residence was blissfully quiet (because Yugi had yelled at Bakura to shut the damned _door_ if he and Yami were going to do that). The sun shone brilliantly though the windows, the shafts of light seeming to sparkle as they lit up the house. Yugi was feeling deliciously cranky. 

Mid-afternoon, and the phone hadn't rung all day. Seto hadn't _called_. No explanations as to why he hadn't shown up yesterday, no apologies, nothing. Yugi plopped down on the couch. Maybe Seto was angry at him after all.

Yugi pouted. Why hadn't Seto called? Or shown up to talk to him? Or something? Yugi got up to pace the room again. Didn't Seto still like him? Yugi snatched up the phone, then sighed and set it back down again. If Seto hadn't called him by now, Yugi certainly wasn't going to call _him_. Seto had to be mad at him. It was the only explanation. 

Though the explanation for _why_ Seto was mad at him was unclear. 

He sat back down on the couch, staring at his sneakers. Why hadn't Seto called?

**

Why hadn't Yugi picked up the phone?

Kaiba hung up the telephone after listening to the automated "the number you have dialed is unavailable" for the sixty-millionth time. What had Yugi done, unplugged the telephone or something? Seto had spent all day trying to get in contact with Yugi. After Bakura had closed the door in his face, Seto had tried to call Yugi- with no success whatsoever. 

Kaiba sighed and plopped down on the couch. Yugi must really be mad at him for forgetting about their plans yesterday. He and Yugi hadn't had the easiest of relationships, but Yugi had never tried to completely shut him out before like this. Of course, Seto had never been so totally wrapped up in work he'd forgotten his own boyfriend, either.

Well, okay, hadn't _recently_, anyway. And maybe that was the problem. Maybe Yugi was tired of Seto always being too _busy_. Relationships ended over that sort of thing all the time, didn't they?

"Still not answering, huh?" Mokuba asked, wandering into the living room.

Seto glared at the telephone. "I think his line must be disconnected or something."

"Or maybe he wants you to think that so he can avoid talking to you."

"Mokuba!"

"What?" Mokuba shrugged. "He _could_. You tried his cell phone with no luck too, right?"

Seto sighed. "Right… I really messed up this time, didn't I, Mokuba?"

"You should go to his house and try to talk to him again," Mokuba suggested. "And if Bakura won't let you talk to Yugi this time, get an arrest warrant on him for holding your boyfriend for ransom or something."

Seto smiled at Mokuba, getting up to go get his coat. "Thanks Mokuba. You always know just what to say."

Mokuba beamed. "So… can I get a raise on my allowance?"

"Don't push it, Mokuba…"

**

"Finally!" Yugi leapt up from the couch and ran all the way to the door before the doorbell was finished chiming. He paused before opening it, however, to catch his breath so he wouldn't seem _too_ eager. Waiting for his pulse to slow, Yugi took a few deep breaths, trying to compose himself. 

Yes, Yugi loved Seto, but Seto _had_ left Yugi waiting for hours out front of the school, and then failed to call and profusely apologize. So after Yugi had quelled the urge to leap at his boyfriend and make-out with him on the porch, in broad daylight where anyone walking down the street could see, he put on his best you'd-better-have-a-good-excuse face and opened the door. 

Except it wasn't Kaiba on the porch. In the place where Seto _should_ be standing waiting to profusely apologize was Duke Devlin.

Yugi blinked at him, then smiled politely. It wasn't Duke's fault that he was not Seto. "Hi Duke. I wasn't expecting you."

Duke smiled at him, but it looked a little forced. "Yeah, hi Yugi. I, uh, tried calling, but I think your phone is busted or something."

Yugi stared at him. "My _phone_ is busted?" His phone was broken?! Hope flared anew within Yugi. Maybe Seto had called him! Maybe he'd tried calling all day but couldn't get through because Yugi's _phone was broken! _"That's great!"

Duke blinked at him. "It is?"

Yugi laughed. "Er, well, I mean, it's great to see you! You don't come over all that often, and- yeah. What brings you over today?"

"Yeah, about that. See, Yugi, I've been thinking a lot lately and…" Duke took a deep breath. "I think I'm in love with you."

Yugi stared. And remembered to breathe after a minute. And smiled very faintly. "Will you excuse me a moment?"

Duke nodded. Yugi kept smiling as he stepped back and closed the door. He leaned back against the door, staring at the carpeting. Then, "Yami! I have a problem!!"  


	3. Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity

"Yugi?" Yami came running down into the hall at Yugi's yell. Yugi was happy to note that, while a little rumpled from whatever he was doing with Bakura, Yami was still dressed. "What's the matter?"

Yugi took a few deep breaths. "It's Duke Devlin. He's on the porch, and he thinks he's in love with me."

Yami blinked. "That does make things complicated, doesn't it?" 

"What do I do?" Yugi wailed. "I don't want to hurt his feelings, but… you know I'm in love with Seto. Even if… he is mad at me right now."

"Did Seto say he was mad at you?" Yami asked.

Yugi shook his head miserably. "But he hasn't called or come by all day. He must be mad at me! I don't think I can handle this thing with Duke… not right now."

"Well you can't just leave Duke Devlin on the porch waiting for you," Yami pointed out. "You'll have to tell him something. Just talk to him, explain you're seeing someone else. He'll understand."

Yugi sniffled a little. "Okayy… um, you're not mad at me, are you? Were you and Bakura busy?"

Yami smiled wryly. "Bakura will be a little huffy, but don't worry about that. Go talk to Devlin."

"Right." Yugi nodded, opening the door a little and slipping back outside. It wouldn't do to have Duke Devlin see Yami just yet. They'd never been formally introduced, and explaining Yami's existence to people still gave Yugi a headache. The migraine he'd gotten trying to explain to Seto had lasted for two days. 

Duke smiled in relief when Yugi stepped back onto the porch. "For a minute I thought you were just going to leave me out here."

"Things have been just a little crazy around here. I've been having problems with…" Yugi trailed off, and shook his head. "Never mind. Back to what you were saying." 

"Yes," Duke agreed with a nod. "I'm in love with you."

Yugi winced. "Please don't say that. How can you be in love with me? We haven't even spent much time together, and the first time we met you hated me…"

"But that was before I knew you!" Duke insisted. "You were so incredible, when you beat me at the game I invented, even though you'd never even heard of it before that point. And you were so… _hot_ standing there across the game field from me…" Duke smiled. "I've reviewed the video recordings two dozen times since then. It's easy to see why you're the King of Games. I think that's when I fell in love with you."

Yugi blinked. "King of Games? Er… you didn't happen to notice what color my eyes were during that little match we had, did you?"

Duke blinked at him, then pulled a rumpled picture out of his pocket, a printed screenshot from the Dungeon Dice Monsters match they'd had. He peered at it, then at Yugi, then back at the picture. "Must have been a lousy camera angle, it makes your eyes look all red…" 

Yugi relaxed a little. "Duke. You're not in love with me after all. You're in love with the King of Games."

"You're not making sense," Duke said. "YOU are the King of Games."

"No I'm not," Yugi said. "That honored title belongs to one of my best friends… who just happens to look just like me. He was the one who defeated you at your own game, not me. He beat Pegasus too at Duel Monsters. I wasn't even there at the end of the duel, really. That's him in your picture; he has red eyes." 

Duke clearly didn't believe him. "What are you saying, that you've got some sort of evil twin running around?"

Yugi heard the door behind him open. "Not evil," Yami said calmly from behind Yugi. "Just… dark, perhaps. But I have never in my life been evil." He paused thoughtfully. "Maybe that one time. But that's it."

Duke stared at Yami. That was him. _He_ was the one who had beaten him at Dungeon Dice Monsters. He was the one Duke couldn't stop thinking about. "You…" He couldn't seem to get much out past that.

"Duke Devlin, allow me to introduce Yami, the King of Games," Yugi said, smiling. He glanced at Yami. "Were you listening to our whole conversation?"

Yami shrugged. "I thought you might need some assistance. Was I mistaken?"

Yugi smiled. "Nope. And you have perfect timing."

"You!" Duke was apparently regaining his ability to speak coherently. "You're the King of Games! You're incredible! You not only learn a game, but master it all in the same day. I can't even tell you how much I've thought of you since that day… it's just like everyone says; can't eat, can't sleep…"

Yugi was regretting getting Yami involved in this now. Because Yami was looking distinctly uncomfortable with the situation. Not to mention the looming shadow with dangerously narrowed eyes looming just inside the house…

"Um, Duke…" Yugi interrupted him. "Allow me to introduce Bakura; Yami's boyfriend."

That shut Duke up. He looked from Yami to the very angry and possessive Bakura who was standing just behind him. 

Bakura wrapped his arms around Yami from behind, explaining succinctly, "_Mine._"

"Oh." Duke shifted slightly, then smiled faintly. "Seems I've made… something of an error. Sorry to bother you guys. I'll, uh, see you later…"

"Wait, Duke…" Yugi called, but Duke didn't even look back as he left. Yugi sighed. "Today simply could not get any stranger."      


	4. Passing Fancy

Passing Fancy

(a.k.a. "How The Authoress Decided to Make My Life Miserable In Any Way Possible" by Yugi Mutou)

**

"I think he could have handled that on his own," Bakura muttered as he and Yami trooped back to the bedroom. "He didn't need to call you out there."

Yami was sort of looking bemused by the whole incident, most especially to Bakura's reaction to it. "You're just upset over what Duke Devlin said."

"No shit," Bakura growled. "But I'm trying to keep my complaints in chronological order here. What is that, the sixteenth time Yugi's interrupted us since he got here yesterday? What is it with that kid? And why do _you_ come running every time he calls?"

"I don't know, possibly because it's my job to do so," Yami replied, folding his arms. "Something of a protective guardian spirit, you know?"

"Don't you think that's a little out-dated?" Bakura asked. "I've heard these modern-day mortals are rather adept at taking care of themselves."

"Like you would know; when's the last time you did anything of the sort for Ryou? You're never even around him anymore, how would you know if he needed you? That's what we're _here_ for."

"No it's not." Bakura glowered at him. "_You _are here because you just had to go and die in Egypt, and then they mummified you. And everybody knows the point of being mummified is so you can come back later. And _I _am here because I killed myself so I could follow you. Did I miss the part where we got enrolled in the Mortal-Protection-Program?"

Yami's eyes narrowed. "Apparently you have, for if you hadn't you might actually do a better job of it. And _I_ am going to continue protecting Yugi as I always have, interruptions or not. And speaking of which, I'm starting to think we are a little over-sexed anyway."

Bakura stared at him. "You don't mean that!"

"Maybe you should spend some more time around Ryou; I think he gets lonely hanging around his house all by himself all the time while you're here with me. And besides, it'll be good for you to remember exactly _why_ our spirits were allowed to come back like this." Yami strolled calmly into the bedroom, closing the door behind him and leaving Bakura staring after him in shock.

"I can't believe he really said that!" Bakura muttered aloud as he stomped into the living room. "He didn't seem to mind being so over-sexed before Yugi came over…"

But it wasn't really Yugi's fault, Bakura decided. It was _Kaiba's_. Kaiba was the one who had broken sappy little Yugi's heart, and now Yugi was here causing hell between Yami and Bakura with his constant whiny _need_ for things. So now somehow Bakura had to get rid of Yugi, and somehow patch things up with Yami.

What was it Yami had said he wanted Bakura to do? Something about taking care of Ryou. Bakura frowned, mulling that over; sounded like it would take more time and effort than he really wanted to put into it. Maybe he could manage both at the same time… 

Well, Yami said he thought Ryou was lonely. So maybe if Ryou and Yugi got _together_, it'd solve both of Bakura's problems. And Kaiba could just go rot in his big empty mansion because it was all his fault to begin with. 

Bakura crawled under the little table in the living room to plug the telephone back in. He hated telephones most of the time; they always rang at the most inconvenient times, and worst of all, Yami would always _answer_ them anyway. So Bakura had made a habit of unplugging the damned things. 

Ryou picked up on the second ring. "Hello?" 

"Ryou? Mind coming over here for a minute?"

**

Seto glowered at the traffic as if that alone would make it disappear. He didn't get it; that glare always worked on _people_. But the cars insistently barring him from getting to Yugi refused to budge.

He'd tried calling Yugi a last time from his cell phone, but had gotten a busy signal that time. This was bordering on ridiculous. He was going to be really glad when this whole mess was cleared up, and Yugi was back where he belonged. Seto let out a frustrated noise and settled down for a long drive.

At last, at last, the traffic pulled itself free of its stagnated state, but Seto's relief as they approached Yugi's house was tinged with anxiety. He wasn't really sure if he wanted to see just how mad Yugi was at him. If Bakura _dared_ tell him he couldn't see Yugi this time…

But it was Yami that answered the door. Seto relaxed; this spirit he could at least get a straight answer from. It was amazing that there was ever a time he could have confused Yami for being Yugi. "Is Yugi here?"

Yami blinked at Seto in surprise. "Kaiba? No, Yugi left about ten minutes ago. He and Ryou were going out to see a movie. If you hurry you might be able to catch them." 

Seto was getting really sick of this. Not even so much as saying goodbye, he stalked back toward the car, ordering the driver to take him to the nearest movie theater. With the traffic cleared out, they made record time in getting there.

Yugi was short, but there was never any hardship in picking him out in a crowd. He and Ryou were standing outside the theater buying the tickets. Seto was actually surprised to see him looking so happy as he chattered away about whatever to Ryou. Ryou laughed at whatever it was Yugi said, handing his diminutive friend his ticket. Hand-in-hand, the two entered the building. 

Determined to talk to Yugi before the day was through, Seto bought a ticket for the movie, noticing with some chagrin that it was the same film he'd promised to take Yugi to see the day before. 

The theater was already dark when Seto got inside, the credits starting to roll. He paused just inside the entrance, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dark, then looking around for Yugi. 

He spotted Yugi sitting nearer to the front, sitting on Ryou's lap and laughing as Ryou fed him popcorn. They made such a perfect picture of a happy couple that Seto had a hard time swallowing past the lump in his throat. Deciding that he could wait to talk to Yugi until he wasn't all lovingly cuddled with Ryou, Seto turned on his heel hurriedly left. 


	5. Nobody's Home

Nobody's Home

***

"How are your legs feeling?" Yugi asked as he and Ryou walked back to Yugi's house after the movie. It was starting to get a little dark out.

"Numb, I think," Ryou answered, trying to stretch his legs out a little as they walked.

Yugi grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that. But thanks for letting me sit on your lap. It never fails; no matter where I sit in a movie theater, someone too tall for me to see over immediately sits right in front of me. It's awful being short sometimes!" 

"It's alright, Yugi, I didn't mind. Really." Ryou smiled at him. 

Inside his soul room, Bakura was gloating. This was ridiculously easy. Bakura half suspected that Ryou might have had something of a crush on Yugi for a while. And all that was needed was a little push to put them together, and Bakura's plan was already half-finished.

**

"You want me to do what?" Ryou had asked, a little startled as he stood on Yugi's porch, blinking at his yami in bewilderment.

"Just spend a little time with him," Bakura had requested. "He's been rather depressed since he and Kaiba broke up. Yugi needs a little time out of the house."

Ryou had not looked convinced. He wasn't sure what to distrust first; that Bakura really cared how Yugi felt, or that Bakura had called him. "Why me? Why not Joey; he and Yugi are a lot closer than Yugi and I are."

Bakura smirked. "Because, Yugi and Kaiba broke up because Yugi likes someone else. And who do you think that someone else is?"

"Me?" Ryou had practically squeaked, looking startled. 

"Ryou?" Yugi interrupted, coming downstairs. "What are you doing here?"

Ryou had smiled at him, and Bakura had known he'd won. "Hey Yugi," Ryou had said. "Want to go to a movie?"

**

After Yugi and Ryou headed off to the movie, Bakura had retreated to his soul room to watch over his plan in action, and make sure neither Yugi nor Ryou screwed it up. If Yami wanted the two mortals to be happy, Bakura would damned well make sure they were. Whether the mortals themselves liked it or not.

"Yugi," Ryou said, pointing to Yugi's house as they neared it. "There's a note taped to your door."

Yugi ran up, scanning over it. "It's to Bakura, from Yami. 'Bakura- you weren't around so I went out to dinner with Duke Devlin. Hope you don't mind, might be home late.' Damn." Yugi looked up at the house, knocking to make certain there was indeed no one there. "Guess neither of them are here, then."

"Is that a problem?" Ryou asked.

"Well, normally it wouldn't be," Yugi said. "Except… I just remembered I lost my key yesterday. I'm locked out." 

"It's getting pretty dark," Ryou observed. "You can stay the night at my house, and get a new key made tomorrow."

Yugi smiled at him. "Alright, thanks! I should leave Yami a note though so he doesn't worry. Got a pen?"

After a thorough search of all pockets on their persons, a pencil was found, and Yugi scrawled a note to Yami under the other message on the paper taped to the doorway. Then he and Ryou hurried over to Ryou's house, because by then it was kind of getting cold as well and neither of them wanted to spend too much time outside anymore.

Bakura seethed all the way to Ryou's house. Duke Devlin! Bakura had been so busy with the problem of setting up Ryou and Yugi, he'd forgotten all about Duke and his infernal infatuation with Yami. The moment Bakura left the house, Duke tried to steal Yami from him! Someone was going to pay for this. 

**

Seto checked his watch. According to the movie times, the movie Yugi had gone to was over now, so he should be home. Determined to see and talk to Yugi as soon as possible, Kaiba headed back to the Motou residence. The porch light was on as he walked to the front door, but none of the inside lights were on, and no one answered his knock.

Frowning, Seto glanced at the note taped to the door. The first part was a note from Yami to Bakura, and of no importance to him. But under that, he recognized Yugi's handwriting, which read,

'Yami, I'm spending the night at Ryou's. Will probably be home late tomorrow morning.  Signed, Yugi.'  

Seto grit his teeth. Ryou again! Yugi sure moved fast, to have replaced Seto so quickly. For what else could it be? He'd seen how close the two had been at the movie theater, and now this…

Heartsick and angry, at the world, at Ryou, at Yugi and mostly at himself, Seto turned around and headed back to the car. He was going home. He was tired of chasing after Yugi when it was so obvious Yugi didn't want anything to do with him anymore. 

This wasn't how he'd expected this to end. But he supposed, deep down, he'd always expected it to end. 

**

"Do you mind if I use your phone?" Yugi asked when they reached Ryou's house. "I really should call Seto. I get this weird feeling that he and I have just kept missing each other ever since yesterday."

"Seto?" Ryou blinked. "I thought you and he broke up."

Yugi blinked at him. "Well, no. At least, I don't think so. I mean, he and I haven't even spoken to one another since yesterday morning. He never even showed up to pick me up after you guys went off after school. But Duke said something about my phone being broken, so maybe Seto has been trying to reach me. I should call him."

Ryou nodded, forcing a smile. "Sure, go ahead, phone's over there. I'll be right back."

Yugi grabbed the phone, dialing Seto's cell phone. Seto picked up on the second ring, just as Yugi expected him to. "Hi, Seto!"

"Yugi?" There was a long silence on the other end. It sounded awkward, and Yugi shifted nervously on the comfy chair he'd perched on.

"Yeah… I just… thought I should call you-"

"Forget it," Kaiba said, in that same cold tone he'd had a long time ago, something Yugi hadn't heard since they'd gotten together. "Don't even bother telling me; I know all about it. It's over Yugi; let it end quietly." And Seto hung up. 

Yugi sat there stunned, listening to dial tone for a long time after that. "…over?"

**

"Bakura!" Ryou shouted in his empty bedroom. "I know you're listening; get out here!" 

The Millennium Ring glowed brightly, and when the light faded, Bakura sat there on the edge of the bed, grinning at his lighter half. "Is there a problem?"

"You told me Yugi and Seto had broken up!" Ryou yelled. "You lied to me!"

"Of course I did; don't I usually?" Bakura folded his arms. "It's your own fault; you really should know better than to trust me after all this time." 

"I should have known better than thought Yami would have a positive influence on you," Ryou grumbled. "And I wouldn't want to be around when Yami finds out what a little snake you are, either." 

Bakura raised an eyebrow slightly. "You wouldn't tell him… would you?"

Ryou looked thoughtful. "I might. I should." He smiled. "I'll think about it." He turned and walked out of the room. Bakura muttered Egyptian curses. It really sucked being a bad influence on a person, when that bad influence turned around to bite him back. 

Yugi was curled up in Ryou's favorite chair when Ryou returned to the living room. Upon closer inspection, Ryou found that Yugi was crying. "Yugi?! What happened?"

Yugi looked up at Ryou, then getting up and hugging Ryou tightly, clinging to him and crying into his shirt, needing that closeness to someone. "H-he broke up with me!" Yugi sobbed. 

"Oh… Yugi…" Ryou hugged his little friend close, just held him like that while Yugi cried.

Bakura watched from around the corner, smirking ever so faintly. Maybe something could be salvaged from his plan after all. 


	6. Sharp Turns Ahead

Caution- Sharp Turns Ahead

**

"Yugi?" Ryou said softly, lightly knocking on his bedroom door before letting himself in. "I called Joey; he'll be over first thing in the morning to see you. I told him you probably just needed some rest tonight, I hope you don't mind."

Yugi shook his head, clutching Ryou's quilt around himself tightly, the large heavy blanket practically swallowing him up in its comfy nest. "Thanks for letting me stay here, Ryou. I just… I can't believe this is happening. Everything was so perfect until yesterday, I don't understand." He blinked up at Ryou with eyes shiny with tears. "D-did I do something wrong, that made Seto mad at me? I can't think of anything…" 

Ryou sat down on the bed beside Yugi, hugging the blanket-cocoon Yugi had wrapped around himself. "I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong. Kaiba's just… you know he's just under a lot of stress all day, he's probably just not thinking clearly. It'll be okay in the morning, I'm sure."

Yugi sniffled and shook his head. "I don't think so. Seto's so stubborn… whatever it is he's mad about, he'll be mad about it for a good long time. I just wish I knew what it was."

"You need to get some rest now, Yugi," Ryou said gently. "You can't stay up all night just being depressed."

Yugi pouted at him. "Who says I can't?" 

Ryou smiled softly. "I say so. And since you're already wrapped up in most of my bedcovers, how about you take the bed tonight?"

Yugi grabbed Ryou's arm desperately the moment Ryou moved to get up. "Don't go! I don't want to be by myself tonight. Losing Seto… hurts, and I don't want to be alone." 

"Okay," Ryou agreed reluctantly. He went to the dresser to dig out some pajamas for the both of them. "You can borrow these… they'll probably be huge on you, but they're more comfortable than sleeping in all that leather you favor." 

Yugi sluggishly pulled himself out of the comfy nest he'd made for himself, taking the offered pajamas and dragging himself to the bathroom to change. Ryou frowned as he changed into his sleepwear as well and climbed into bed. Yugi was taking this really hard. It was painful seeing Yugi so broken up over this. It made Ryou very uncharacteristically angry with Seto Kaiba for doing this to Yugi. 

He couldn't help but smile though, when Yugi padded back into the room, the pajama's hanging off his small frame almost comically. Yugi climbed into the bed, cuddling up to Ryou in an effort to get as much close-contact comfort as he possibly could. Crying so hard had really tired Yugi out, and he was asleep within moments, a sort of uneasy, fitful sleep, which Ryou held him close throughout. 

**

Bakura was in a foul mood when Yami finally came home that night. It didn't help in the least that Yami seemed so calm about it, either.      

"What were you thinking?" Bakura demanded. "Duke Devlin told you how he felt about you, and yet you'll just go out to dinner with him like I don't even matter?"

"Of course you matter," Yami replied patiently, calmly brushing past Bakura and heading for the kitchen, digging through the fridge for a soda. "But you weren't here. I didn't see the harm in it."

"You don't see the harm in going on a date with him even when you have me?"

"It wasn't a date, it was dinner. Duke is nice, and considering he seems to have… strong feelings for me, I figured it would at least be polite to get to know him. At least be friends." Yami's expression was calm, but Bakura got the feeling Yami was just daring him to say something stupid and dig himself into a deeper hole.  

Bakura grit his teeth. "You're enjoying this, aren't you? You had such fun making me jealous before we got together, you've decided to do it again!"

"Now why would I do that?" 

"I dunno, because you're secretly a manipulative little freak!" Bakura snapped at him. "You've got some great grand scheme in your head that somehow involves me _suffering_, don't you?" Now, Bakura knew he was frustrated, and he knew he said some rather stupid things when he was frustrated, but one look at Yami's face and he decided he should have picked some other stupid thing to say. _Anything_ else.

"I think," Yami said, deliberately slowly, "that perhaps we need more time apart from each other than I realized." He turned his back on Bakura, heading for his room. 

"Yami!" Bakura called after him. "Yami, wait!"

"_Goodnight_, Bakura." 

**

"That spoiled rotten creep!" Joey growled for the millionth time of the morning. "I can't believe he did that! How dare he?"

"He must have his reasons," Yugi answered, having repeated those words so many times they felt burned on his tongue. 

"But he wouldn't TELL you his reasons!" Joey retorted. "Didn't even have the guts to tell you in person!" 

"Seto's busy," Yugi repeated, staring at the floor. His voice broke on a sob. "Always, always busy. Too busy for me…" 

"Awww, don't mourn for that rich little snot," Joey said, trying to be comforting. "You're better off without him. And if anyone knows that relationships ain't easy, it's me." He shot a friendly glare at where his boyfriend Marik was leaning against the wall, looking so bored he could cry. Or throttle someone. "You _could_ help."

"What?" Marik's eyes narrowed at Joey. "I'm only here because you are. And speaking of which, we've _been_ here for two hours. Make Yugi quit sniveling so we can go." 

Joey rolled his eyes, ignoring his antisocial boyfriend. "Ignore him, Yuug. He's really much nicer than he sounds."

Yugi sniffled. "S-Seto was too…" 

Marik groaned as Yugi resumed crying. "Here we go again." 

Joey frowned, trying to think of anything that would cheer his little friend up. Anything to distract him. "Hey, tell you what, Yugi. Just to prove I'll be here and support you in anything, since you won't be getting laid for a while, neither will I."

Yugi blinked at him. "Y-you'd really give that up, to be here with me?"

"Hey!" Marik protested. "I didn't agree to this! What am _I_ supposed to do?"

Joey ignored him. "Sure, Yuug! If I make tall-dark-an'-creepy over there keep his mitts off for a while, I'll have more time to spend with you. It'll be like old times." 

Yugi smiled at him, weakly, but just what Joey was hoping to see. "Thanks, Joey. You're the best."

Marik snarled something fierce in Egyptian that was probably better off not translated, and stomped into Ryou's living room, where Bakura was currently trying not to sulk.  

"The gods," Marik announced, "have gone crazy."

"They were already crazy," Bakura muttered back. "They sent us five thousand years in the future to play bodyguard to a bunch of over-emotional mortals."

Marik glanced at him, temporarily pleased to find someone a little more miserable than he was. "Let me guess; Yami kicked you out." 

"He didn't kick me out!" Bakura snapped.

"Nahh, he did something worse than that," Marik mused. "He's denying you sex."

Bakura frowned at Marik, then smirked. "You too, huh? You and your little puppy have a domestic dispute?"

"Worse!" Marik exploded. "Joey's decided he's going to support Yugi by refusing to put out. However 'that' twisted logic works. So until Yugi gets fucked, I think I'm screwed."

"Or rather, not screwed," Bakura retorted with a smile. "I think Yami's terms come to somewhat of the same thing. Kaiba, of course, is being impossible. My plan was to push Yugi and Ryou together until they ended up in a sweaty tangle of limbs and bed sheets, but… if it's working, it's doing so slowly."

"Well…" Marik said slowly. "Since we do seem to be working for a common goal… perhaps we should join forces."

"We tried that before," Bakura reminded him. "And you know how well that worked out."

"This time will be different," Marik assured him. "We will succeed, because after all, we are doing this for dear Yugi's sake, are we not?"

"Oh, indeed." Bakura grinned. "For Yugi's sake." 

**

Mokuba checked the clock in the hallway as he headed purposefully to Kaiba's room. He'd known his older brother was upset when he'd come home the night before, but it wasn't like him to sleep in, especially when there was work to be done. He knocked on Seto's door, and receiving no answer, peeked inside. Seto was still in bed, the bed covers pulled over his head.

Frowning at the uncharacteristic event of finding Seto abed a full half-hour after his usual time for getting up, Mokuba straightened up to look as grown-up as his small stature could possibly allow… then took a running leap at his sleeping brother, tackling him.

"Seto!" Mokuba announced, pulling the bedsheets off Kaiba's head. "It's time to get up!"

Kaiba glared at his little brother with blurry eyes. "Go away, Mokuba," he sleepily commanded.

Mokuba shook his head, climbing off the bed. "You have to get up!" he insisted. "You scheduled a meeting today, remember? You kept telling me it was a really important meeting, the clients were only going to be in town for a few days!"

Seto groaned and pulled the blankets back over his head, burrowing into the bed. "I'm not going to work today," came his mumbled reply.

Mokuba stared at the lump in the bed that was his brother. "But Seto-!"

"I am NOT going to work today," Seto repeated sharply. "GO. AWAY."

"Oh…" Mokuba slowly backed out of the room. "Okay…" He headed back downstairs, sitting down at the table, not entirely sure what to do. Then he took up a pen and a piece of paper, writing a note;

"Please excuse Mokuba from turning in his history paper on Tuesday, because the Apocalypse is coming." 

He considered going back upstairs and getting Seto to sign it, but figured it might just be easier to forge his brother's signature. After all, he wasn't really sure that thing upstairs was really Seto Kaiba, at all.  


	7. Wake Up

Wake Up

**

It used to be that Seto considered night to be the darkest, loneliest time of the day. Sitting awake in the dark, knowing nothing outside of that room was moving, not even awake. He'd never been one to sleep very much. Seto had always said it was because just because the sun had gone down, didn't mean the work went away. Privately, he knew the reason was just because he didn't want to lay awake, staring at the ceiling, and wondering what it would be like if he were anyone else. All his life, Kaiba had been called a genius- but Seto knew geniuses had one fatal flaw to them. They thought too much. 

Yugi was what had made the night bearable. With Yugi curled asleep beside him, Seto no longer thought too much in the night; he could just close his eyes, and be content. Nights didn't bother him anymore.

Now, however, he knew there was a darker, lonelier time than the night. It was the morning. He'd woken up that morning and reached for Yugi, and found he wasn't there. Would never be there again. He had to get up; there were things to do today, clients to meet with, a business to be run. But… Yugi's side of the bed was empty. So what was the point of even getting up?

The problem, Seto decided, was that he had come to need Yugi. Somehow, inexplicably, the small boy had become a vital part of his existence. And the problem in that was that Yugi did not need him in return. Yugi _had_ friends, he _had_ a life. Seto hadn't even known he'd been missing those things before he'd gotten involved with Yugi. 

_No more,_ Seto decided. He'd sworn when he was a kid to never need anyone again, to rely on no one but himself. Clenching his eyes shut, he swore his vow again. If Yugi wanted to leave, that was just fine. Seto didn't need him.

Still… he couldn't make himself get out of bed. Not while the scent of Yugi still lingered there.

Kaiba was glad Mokuba had left him alone for the morning. Despair and self-disgust was easier to wallow in when you were alone.

**

"So, we have a goal," Bakura said, talking to Marik but keeping an eye on the doorway should anyone come near. "Now we just need a plan of execution."

"Mmm, executions… dead people!" Marik murmured happily. "Those are always fun."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "You're really hopeless, you know? If this is how serious you're going to be about this plan, we might as well quit right now."  

"Okay, alright!" Marik sat up, glowering. "But you haven't said anything worth listening to for ten minutes. Do you HAVE a plan, or are you just pretending to know what you're doing?"

"Well I don't see YOU jumping in with any kind of plan," Bakura shot back.

"I told you my plan." Marik grinned, fondly touching the Millennium Rod he carried with him everywhere. "Mind slave the both of them, toss them in bed, tell them to get to fucking. Problem solved. It'd take me about three minutes." 

Bakura wished he had something harder than a pillow close at hand to throw at Marik. "And I told you, Yami would send me to a second afterlife for even considering that. Joey would probably not think your idea to be too clever either."

"Oh right…" Marik frowned, though Bakura could tell he was actually trying not to pout. "Joey hates it when I mind-slave people. He'd kick me out in a heartbeat. I'd have to go back to living with my sister."

"Right. Besides, don't you think it'd be far too suspicious if it happened so fast as all that? As much as we want to get this over with quickly, we have to move carefully." Bakura frowned in thought, his gaze falling to the Millennium Rod. He grinned, slowly. "Hey. Can you be subtle with that thing?"

"Subtle? How so?"

"We can't just enslave their minds like you wanted to. But maybe if we just planted the 'suggestion'… then let them work it out on their own? I know Ryou already somewhat likes Yugi. He just needs a little… persuasion to do something about it." 

Marik's wicked grin matched Bakura's. "Just a little push in the proper direction? I'll see what I can do." He grabbed up the Millennium Rod, frowning in concentration, the eye of power on the Item beginning to shimmer and glow.

**

Joey had spent most of the morning over at Ryou's, trying to comfort Yugi. Which left Ryou with pretty much nothing to do. He wandered around the house aimlessly, trying to keep busy by cleaning his already immaculate house. Joey could do a much better job of consoling Yugi than Ryou ever could. Joey had been friends with Yugi longer than Ryou had, so it made sense for Joey to be the one there. Ryou would have only felt he was in the way, hanging around. 

Still, he would have liked to feel at least a _little_ needed…  

It was painful to not be able to do anything for a friend in need, especially one as sweet and heartbroken as Yugi. And sure, so maybe he _did_ actually like Yugi… but Ryou had ignored that feeling for a long time now, knowing that it was impossible when Yugi had Kaiba. 

But now that Yugi _didn't_ have Kaiba…

What was he thinking? Taking advantage of Yugi's heartbroken state in order to assuage his own loneliness? That would just be cruel…

_That's not what I'm doing,_ Ryou told himself firmly, as he headed for his room. No way would he do that. But still, he did want to do _something_ to help take Yugi's mind off Kaiba. And… aw heck, maybe impress him just a _little_… what would the harm be in that?

Where to start… well, certainly he couldn't outclass Kaiba looking the way he did. Ryou liked to dress casually, but it wasn't the sort of thing one wore to impress anybody. He went to the boxes in the closet, starting to dig through some of the clothes Bakura had left there. Some of _these_ were more what one would call impressive.

Ryou smiled ruefully to himself as he rooted through the clothing. Where were all these thoughts coming from? It was so unlike him…

**

"A fine job, if I do say so myself," Marik stated proudly, as the light from the Millennium Item died down. "He's got no clue those thoughts are anything but his own."

"Good. It'll be trickier with Yugi; Yami will know the minute something is amiss," Bakura warned. "No screw ups."

"Hey. I did a _perfect_ job on Ryou." Marik glared at him.

"Then do even _better_ on Yugi."

"Whatever. One better-than-perfect thought transplant for the puny one, coming up."


	8. Tangled Webs

Tangled Webs

***

Mokuba stood uneasily outside of his brother's room, chewing his lower lip. His brother hated it when he chewed his lower lip; it was Mokuba's nervous habit, and Seto said it made him look undignified. It was only recently has Mokuba started to point out that, as a child, he was supposed to look _cute_, not dignified. Seto seemed to have forgotten that he too had had a cute stage as a child. 

"Seto?" Mokuba finally called through the closed door. "I'm going to go out for a little while."

"Fine," was Seto's muffled reply.

"And I'm going to ride my bike off the roof," Mokuba continued.

"Fine."

"And then I'm going to have Joey Wheeler teach me to play duel monsters," Mokuba added.

"Fine."

"And I'm quitting Kaiba Corp, and I'm going to stay out really late and eat ice cream until I puke, and maybe I'll go to a strip club and bribe the guy at the door to let me in. I could pass for a really short 18 year old, don't you think?" Mokuba finished in a rush.

"Fine." 

Mokuba scowled. Apparently, his brother had been abducted by aliens and replaced by a pod person. He stomped down the hallway, making as much noise as he could because Seto always hated it when he did that, and grabbed his jacket from his room. He was going to see Yugi. Mokuba knew _something_ had happened between Seto and Yugi, and Mokuba was damned well going to find out what it was and _fix_ it. 

**

Marik made some really funny faces when he was concentrating really hard. But that was about the only thing interesting about watching him work. Bakura was getting bored. Correction; he was _way_ passed bored, and moving into homicidal. He didn't dare break Marik's concentration though; what if Marik accidentally damaged Yugi's brain and sent the diminutive duelist into a permanent coma? Not that Bakura really cared what happened to Yugi, but if and when Yami found out what had happened… 

Bakura shuddered, not wanting to think about what Yami would do to him. There were things worse than the Shadow Realm, and Yami probably knew all of them. 

The light radiating from the Millennium Rod finally faded, and Marik sat back with a look of smug satisfaction. 

"Well?" Bakura demanded. 

"My finest work ever," Marik announced. "You may now get down on your knees and worship my magnificence." 

"You wish. Joey may get down on his knees for you, but he's the only one." Bakura looked and him skeptically. "So, how long until whatever you did to Yugi kicks in?"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?" Marik grinned and stood up. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go fetch my puppy and get out of here. Your hikari's house is creepy."

Bakura blinked at him. "It is?" 

"It's too _clean_." Marik headed down the hallway to go find Joey. Bakura frowned, then retreated to his soul room to get a better seat to watch the action.

**

Ryou finished rooting through Bakura's old box of clothing, dressing in the chosen items and critically examining himself in the mirror. Black fishnet shirt, leather jacket, dark heavy denim jeans with some sort of spiked metal coverings over the kneecaps, and black leather boots with more buckles than boot. He looked…

_Dangerous? Sexy? Like he was going to the hottest party in town? _Ryou's eager pride offered.

_Foolish_, decided Ryou's self-consciousness. His pride whimpered and returned to its little corner to hide. 

He sighed, gazing at his reflection in disappointment. Yes, he looked foolish. Bakura may look hot in all this stuff, but Ryou certainly did _not_. He just didn't have the right personality for it. People would just laugh if they saw him in this getup. 

Well, he was doing this for Yugi, after all. Maybe he wouldn't impress him, but Yugi could certainly use a good laugh right about now. Coaxing his pride back out and gathering up his courage, he left his room to go find Yugi.

He encountered Marik dragging Joey down the hall. Joey was complaining half-heartedly about having to leave, and Marik just looked happy to be leaving.

"Bye Bakura," Joey called as they passed Ryou, then halted so fast that Marik got yanked back. Joey turned around to look at Ryou again. "_Ryou?!_ What are you _wearing_?"

Ryou smiled at him sheepishly, flushing a little pinkly. "Er. I was going to try to cheer Yugi up."

Joey didn't say anything. Marik tore his eyes away from Ryou to look at Joey, and glowered when he discovered Joey was similarly staring at Ryou. 

"We'll just be going then," Marik growled, taking a fierce grip on Joey's arm that would probably bruise, and dragging his still staring boyfriend away. 

Well. Judging from the way the two had stared, he either _did_ look good, or he looked even sillier than he'd previously thought. He knocked lightly on the door of the room Yugi was in, feeling increasingly more ridiculous by the minute.

"Come in…" Yugi called.

Ryou opened the door slowly, stepping inside and almost cringing, expecting to hear Yugi's immediate laughter over Ryou's outfit. But Yugi just blinked at him. "Er, hey Yugi… I thought maybe… you'd like to order a pizza, maybe rent a video or something?" 

"Ryou…" Yugi said slowly. "What are you wearing?" 

Ryou sighed. "Bakura's old clothes. Thought you could use a good laugh." 

Oddly enough, Yugi didn't really feel like laughing. What he _felt_ like doing… was an entirely inappropriate thing to be thinking about doing with a friend! He didn't know _where_ the sudden urge came from. It was completely out of place. Yugi loved Seto, not Ryou, so… what was he _thinking_?

"Yugi?" Ryou asked shyly. He could feel himself starting to blush. Yugi was staring at him so oddly, and… Ryou rather liked it. 

Yugi blinked, then shook his head as if to clear it. "What? Oh, right, pizza. Mmm, no thanks, maybe we could just make sandwiches, or… something…" His train of thought was derailing fast, with Ryou standing in front of him looking so good. He tried desperately to call up the mental image of Seto, but it was so elusive, blurred in his mind. 

"Yugi, are you feeling alright?" Ryou broke the silence again, taking a few tentative steps forward. "You look a little pale." 

"I don't really feel like myself," Yugi murmured, standing up slowly and walking up to Ryou. He stood looking up at his friend for a moment. Then he stood up on tiptoes, his hands on Ryou's shoulders to raise himself up enough that he could kiss Ryou. 

**

"Yugi!" Mokuba called, pounding on Yugi's door. "Open up! It's Mokuba! I need to talk to you!"

The door opened, but it was Yami, not Yugi, that stood there. "Hello Mokuba. Yugi's not home right now; he spent the night at Ryou's house." 

Mokuba frowned. "Do you know when he will be home?"

Yami shook his head. "He left me a note, and usually he calls to say when he'll be home, but he hasn't yet…"

"Actually, he may have…" Mokuba said slowly. "See, Seto tried to call him a bunch of times yesterday except he kept getting one of those 'this number is unavailable' messages. I think your phone is broken." 

Yami blinked. "Really?" He opened the door wider for Mokuba to come in, then went to pick up the phone. No dial tone.

"Here's the problem!" Mokuba announced, pointing to where the phone was unplugged from the wall. "Someone unplugged it."

"Yugi spent all day waiting for Kaiba to call, it couldn't have been him. And I didn't, so that leaves…" His eyes narrowed. "Bakura." 

"Could you tell me the way to Ryou's house?" Mokuba asked. "I really need to speak to Yugi right away. Seto won't get out of bed! He won't go to work, and he doesn't listen to anything I say, he just lays there all depressed. I've never seen him like that before!" 

"I'll take you over there," Yami said. "I believe Bakura is over there too, and I think I need to speak with him about this…"

**

Well, THAT sure was fast…

Bakura lay back in his soul room, watching as Yugi's almost chaste little kiss had turned into a nice little make-out fest. Bakura had told Marik go easy with the whole manipulating of Yugi and Ryou's minds, but apparently Marik still hadn't _quite_ gotten the hang of subtlety. Or maybe it was just that Marik was too impatient to care if Yami figured out what had happened. 

Still, the plan seemed to be working, if a little faster than intended. Yugi and Ryou were about five minutes away from having sex, Yami would be happy that the two mortals were happy, and hopefully Bakura would reap all the rewards of Yami's happiness. 

Only one thing interfered with that happy daydream. The doorbell was ringing. 

Ryou broke his kiss with Yugi when he heard the doorbell ring insistently a second time, glancing at Yugi apologetically. 

Yugi pouted cutely, wrapping his arms around Ryou and giving him another brief kiss. "Don't go."

Yugi's pleading eyes should be illegal, Ryou decided as he gave up trying to go get the door, settling back onto the bed with Yugi. Mentally he called to Bakura's soul room, _/…go get the door, Bakura…/_

_//…YOU go!…//_

_/…I'm busy, you go get it…/_

Apparently Marik's mental tampering had made Ryou a little more demanding, as well. Grumbling, Bakura left his soul room, materializing in the living room, and went to answer the door.

_Uh oh._

Yami stood on the porch, arms folded, looking expectant. Beside him stood the younger Kaiba brother, also looking expectant.

"H-hey Yami… wasn't expecting to see you here…" Bakura began.

"Well, I would have called, except it seems the phone is unplugged," Yami answered. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Um, maybe?"

"My big brother was trying to reach Yugi all yesterday!" Mokuba told him. "Except he couldn't and now he's all miserable." He took a breath. "Is Yugi here?"

Probably best not the scar the poor kid while Yami was standing right there, Bakura decided. "Yeah, down the hall, but-"

Too late. Mokuba took off running down the hall, calling for Yugi. Yami gave Bakura an unreadable glance, then followed after Mokuba. 

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you…" Bakura called after them… 

Moments later there was a surprised "_eeep!_" as Mokuba discovered why exactly he shouldn't be going in there. He came running back into the living room, face a rather interesting mottled red. "Y-Yugi is… is…"

"A little busy right now," Bakura finished for him calmly.

He cringed a little as Yami came back into the room, looking decidedly not happy with recent turns of events. "Bakura," Yami said in a low, deadly tone. "I detect that someone has used a Millennium Item to make a few interesting changes in my hikari. Perhaps you can explain?" 


	9. Lost Boys

Lost Boys

**

The clock in the hall was chiming one in the afternoon. Seto removed the pillow he was holding over his head and tossed it across the room, stretching and trying to decide whether or not he was going to get up at all that day. He certainly didn't want to. But the business man in him refused to let him spent all day lazing about in bed, so in the end he reluctantly got up, practically having to drag himself to the adjoining bathroom to get cleaned up. 

He mechanically went through the routine of brushing his hair and brushing his teeth. Seto's gaze fixed on his own hollow-eyed stare in the mirror, and only after his morning rituals did he stand back to survey himself, as he did every morning, to make sure he looked presentable. 

He'd forgotten to put on a robe that morning. It's not like there was anyone around to see him, but the truth was, Seto didn't much care to see himself. It had taken him a long time to be able to look in the mirror without flinching. And he still refused to wear clothing that bared any skin from the neck down. 

The reason for that was clearly highlighted in the bright lights of the bathroom. Dozens of thin, long scars striped all over his skin, back and front, almost perfect parallel lines across his flesh. To make him strong, his adoptive father had said. To make him learn. To make him behave, to make him listen, and most importantly, to make him grow up long before he was meant to. After the first few times, Seto had stopped crying when he was beaten. Oh yes, he had learned those lessons.  

And he'd never been scarred where he couldn't cover it up. He allowed no one to view the scars. No one was to know what he had gone through to become the way he was. Not even Mokuba. Especially not Mokuba. There was only one person in the world he had shared his secret with.

Yugi.

**

Seto and Yugi had been dating for nearly half a year by that point, and it was assumed by everyone that knew them that the two had been sleeping together. Yugi still blushed whenever the subject was mentioned, and he always evaded answering directly. Seto was more direct, informing anyone that asked that it was none of their damned business. But the truth was, the two had not gone so far yet. And it wasn't that they didn't want to.

_Seto was scared. He'd never admit it aloud, but he was. Yugi didn't know about the scars that Seto hid, and Seto wasn't sure how he would react. The stripes on his chest and back weren't pretty, and he had kept his secret for so long… to show it to anyone was almost unthinkable. _

_But it had been getting increasingly harder to push Yugi away. That hurt look in Yugi's bright eyes when Seto gently pushed him back was unbearable. Seto had never been so happy as when he was with Yugi, and finally he was tired of his secret coming between them. _

_So he had stopped pushing Yugi away. And things were so pleasant then, he'd almost forgotten his fears, until he let Yugi tug off his shirt, and his diminutive boyfriend's gasp of surprise quickly reminded him of them._

_There was silence. Seto couldn't look at Yugi. Yugi couldn't look away from the long stripes marring his boyfriend's skin. _

_But Yugi never asked about them. He didn't need to; he knew just enough of Seto's past to be able to figure out exactly where all of these had come from. Seto stiffened when he felt Yugi's fingers trace along each slightly puckered line over his chest, his touch soon followed by a rain of soft kisses along those hated scars. _

_Seto had stared at Yugi in shock. And Yugi had smiled at him, and pulled off his own shirt. _

_Yugi's scars were nothing like the neat and orderly stripes on Seto. His were in violent disarray all over his front and back, jagged and wild, two or three that looked vaguely like cigarette burns, and nearly two dozen in a large cluster that looked like a smattering of star bursts.   _

_Seto was shocked. Hadn't Yugi's life always been so… perfect? He had talent and friends, and real family, even if it was only his grandfather. Seto had never expected to see anything like this on Yugi. "Who did this to you? Surely not your parents, or grandfather…"_

_"No!" Yugi had laughed softly. "No, no it wasn't them. It's just… well, I've always been smaller than everyone, and weaker. And even Téa used to tell me I was too nice. The perfect target, you know? So I got picked on. And some were meaner than others." He touched the puckered star-shaped scars on his side. "These were from Joey."_

_"Puppy?!"_

_"Don't call him that!" Yugi whapped Seto's shoulder lightly. "But… yeah, it was him. He didn't know he did it though! Before we were friends, he used to pick on me too, just like everyone else did. And once Joey pushed me down on the sidewalk, and I landed on something sharp… broken glass, I guess. I didn't even realize how bad it was until much later, after my jacket got ruined with the blood. Don't tell him, okay? He doesn't know about these."_

_And that had been the end of Seto's unfounded fears. He could trust Yugi with his secrets, and he knew Yugi would trust him with his, in return. That night they spent hours exploring every scar that crossed their skin, and when they knew each other's body as well as they knew their own, they made love for the first time, and fell asleep curled in each other's arms._

**

That was not the right sort of thing to reminisce about at the moment, Seto decided. He felt even worse now. Forget trying to get anything accomplished for the day; he was going back to bed. He crawled back under the covers, grabbed another pillow, and buried his face in it. 

"Oh for heaven's sake, will you quit moping? You'll never get anything done at this rate!" an exasperated female voice snapped at him. Seto sat up and whirled about so fast he nearly fell out of the bed.

A woman sat at the foot of the bed, her ice blue eyes glaring at him. She had hair so white it almost glowed, but she didn't look terribly old. A white dragon tail peeked out from under the hem of her skirt.

"Who are you?" Seto demanded. "How did you get in here?"

"Come now, don't tell me you don't recognize one of your own beloved Blue Eyes White Dragons?" the girl teased.

"You don't _look_ like a dragon." 

"That's because your room is no where near large enough for me in dragon form. I'd probably accidentally squish you, and considering I'm supposed to be your guardian, what a fine mess I'd be in then!" She grinned at him. "I'm Midori. I believe you met one of my brothers a while back when you went to Egypt looking for the Pharaoh?"

Seto shook his head slowly. "You're not real. I'm dreaming."

Midori huffed in annoyance, getting up and walking over to him, and whacking him upside the head.

"Ow!"

"That feel real enough?" Midori demanded. "Honestly, considering you've been trapped in the shadow realm, talked with two guardian duel monsters from another dimension, and associate with your boyfriend's previous incarnation on a regular basis, I would have thought you'd be more used to the existence of magic."

Seto chose to ignore all that, focusing in on the important point. "Yugi's not my boyfriend anymore. He broke up with me."

"Wrong!" Midori informed him cheerfully. "_You _broke up with _him_."

"What?" Seto stared at her. "…I wouldn't… I _couldn't_…" 

"You did." She patted his head like he was a little child. "But it's not your fault.  You misinterpreted what you saw, came to the conclusion that he dumped you, and in doing so, accidentally dumped him instead." 

"You mean… he still wants to be with me?" Hope flared anew.

"Well…" Midori frowned faintly. "That's where things get complicated. Things are getting drastic very quickly, and we guardians are having to take a more… direct approach than we'd normally be allowed to do. And we're not taking any chances with _you_, Seto Kaiba. You're a hair's breadth from doing something stupid, so I'm taking you where I can keep an eye on you." 

Seto glared at her. "I never do anything stupid."

Midori snorted. "Right, Mr. Genius. Then explain to me why it was a _smart_ idea to underestimate Yugi's loyalty to you?" 

He couldn't answer that one.

Midori smirked at him, heading for the door. "Change out of your pajamas and meet me downstairs in five minutes." 

_Why does all the weirdest crap always happen to me?_ Seto sighed as Midori closed the door behind her, and he once again got out of bed, moving to the closet to get dressed. 

**

There was a swirling vortex in the living room, slightly to the left of the coffee table. Midori was standing beside it as she waited for Kaiba to come down.

"Right on time," Midori murmured as he walked over, eyeing the portal suspiciously. "You ready to go?"

"What's in there?" Seto demanded, not moving too close to the black and sapphire portal. 

"The shadow realm, of course," Midori replied. "Or part of it. Our current base of operations. It's pretty hectic in there right now, so stay close to me and try not to get stepped on." She smirked at him and stepped through the portal, disappearing into its sapphire light.

Kaiba almost decided to go back upstairs to bed. But finally he sighed, and stepped through the portal after the Blue Eyes White Dragon. 

Midori had not been kidding when she said it was hectic in there. The room was massive, one huge wall covered by a large mirror. And the room was filled with duel monsters. There were two other Blue Eyes White Dragons in one corner, where Midori was heading. There was a fourth Blue Eyes in another corner, talking seriously with the Dark Magician. What seemed to be a three-foot-tall version of Obelisk the Tormenter was running around by the mirror wall, bawling, while a Red Eyes Black Dragon snapped at him to shut up. The Mystical Elf stood by the mirror as well, staring into it sadly. The huge form of Exodia the Forbidden One took up all of another corner, and he waved to Seto as he came in.

Kaiba carefully stepped past the creepy giant form of Exodia, hurrying to catch up with Midori, who had transformed into her dragon form. It was a wonder all these people (and monsters) could fit in this room and still have the space to move around, but somehow they managed. 

"These are my brothers, and your other two guardians, Gin and Kin," Midori introduced Seto to the two Blue Eyes she was talking with. "The one over there with the Dark Magician is my other brother, Shiroi. I think you may have already met him too, but he's Bakura's guardian." She sighed. "Bakura's gonna be needing a guardian pretty soon here…"

"What is all of this?" Seto demanded. "Why are all these people here? What's going on?"

Midori shook her head, ignoring the questions and calling out over the crowd. "Has Yugi's guardian been found?"

The Dark Magician looked up from where he was talking with Shiroi, shaking his head. "Not yet. But we're looking; it won't be much longer now."

"You see," one of the other Blue Eyes said to Seto (Gin or Kin; he couldn't tell the difference between them), "we've come up against a rather messy situation. It's very complicated, and involves many people, which is why there are so many guardians here."

"Except Yugi's," said the other Blue Eyes (probably Kin, but again, Seto couldn't tell). "Nobody can seem to find him."

Seto frowned, thinking about that. "Yugi only has one? I have three, and I remember Bakura said something about Yami having eight. Why does Yugi only get one?" 

"Most people only get one," Midori said. "But you're right, as the reincarnation of the Pharaoh Yami, Yugi should have received all eight of Yami's guardians when Yami died. And therein lies the problem."

"What problem?" Seto demanded. "Yami's dead, Yugi gets the guardians. Let them fix whatever mess is going on."

Midori reshaped herself into human form, calmly whapping Seto on the head again. "It's a complicated tale. But…" she looked around the chaos of the room. "I supposed we have time for the moment.

"In Ancient Egypt, it was believed that people did not have one soul, but two. The two souls were identical, but one was the life soul, and the other was the ghost soul, which walked in the realm of dreams. Whenever people saw themselves in a dream, they were really seeing their ghost soul. The two souls were supposed to go together always. When a person died, their true soul went to the underworld, and their ghost soul remained with the body, to lead the true soul back when it was time to be reincarnated.

"However, when the Pharoah Yami died, his soul was sealed within the Millennium Puzzle. But not both souls. The ghost soul was separated from the true soul, and wandered the earth, lost and uncertain. In the end, the ghost soul was reincarnated, instead of the true soul. The ghost soul became Yugi. Ghost souls are not supposed to act as the true soul, and that's what makes Yugi smaller than Yami, weaker, and less confident. If it weren't for the Millennium Puzzle keeping the souls separate, Yugi would not exist at all.

And, to answer your question, the guardians are bound to protect the true soul, which is Yami. Since Yugi shouldn't exist, he shouldn't get a guardian at all, but we think the same fluke that created him may have provided him a guardian as well. We just need to find him."    

That was all a little much to process for Seto, genius though he was. He'd been told a few times he was supposed to be the reincarnation of the high priest, but whatever knowledge he had processed of all this magical nonsense, he certainly couldn't remember any of it. 

"Midori!" the Red Eyes Black Dragon called from over by the mirror. "You better get over here quick! We have a big problem! Has Yugi's guardian been found yet?"

"Not yet," Midori replied, hurrying over. She'd told Seto to stay close to her, and he was curious anyway, so he followed her over.

The Red Eyes swore. "Well, _whoever_ Yugi's guardian is, when we find him, I'm gonna chomp him in half for letting this happen." She looked back at the mirror, scowling. "You're _certain_ Hansha can't do anything about this?"

"You know the Dark Magician can only protect his own charge, and that means Yami, not Yugi. What's the matter?" Midori pushed past the Red Eyes to get a look at the mirror. She let off a fluent stream of curses even worse than the Red Eyes'. 

Whatever was in that mirror, it had something to do with Yugi, and Seto wanted to see. He wedged past the black dragon, moving over to stand next to the Mystical Elf, who was shaking her head sadly. 

It seemed this was not so much a mirror, as a window into the realm of mortals. It took Seto a moment to really register what he was seeing, playing out before him as if on a huge video screen. 

Yugi, caught up in a tangle of limbs with Ryou, the two of them gasping and kissing and clinging to one another like their life depended on it. The twisted bed sheet obscured the lower parts of their bodies, but it did not take a genius to figure out what they were doing. And Seto was a genius, so he could probably figure out quite a bit more than that. Ryou's hands clutched at Yugi's chest, his fingers trailing over the smattering of star-burst scars dotting along Yugi's side. 

And Seto Kaiba, CEO of KaibaCorp, former number-one duelist of the world, and possibly one of the smartest teenagers in the known universe, did something he will deny fervently should you ever ask him about it. 

He fainted. 

**


	10. Dark Spaces

Dark Spaces

**

Yami had really hoped to never be in this position. It had always been something of a secret dread, but until this moment, the issue hadn't ever come up. And now he had to decide whether or not to cast a Penalty Game on someone he really cared about. 

Bakura had made quick work of the explanations of what had happened. He and Marik had somehow decided manipulating Yugi and Ryou's lives would make Yami and Joey happy. How they'd come to that conclusion, Yami only faintly understood. The reasons for it were unimportant now anyway; a punishment was called for, and Yami had the unenviable task of delivering it. 

But could he really go through with punishing his own boyfriend, no matter the crimes he'd committed on his hikari? Should he go easy on him?

"Yami?" Bakura watched Yami uneasily. Obviously the plan had ended in shambles, and Yami looked really upset about it. This wasn't going to end well at all. 

Yami finally seemed to come to a conclusion, sighing and moving over to Bakura. "Bakura…" His expression was resigned as he kissed the white-haired thief, very gently. "I'll come for you in a few days."

Bakura blinked at him. "What?"

Yami shoved Bakura hard backwards. A glittering black and sapphire portal opened up behind him, and Bakura let out a little yelp of surprise as the swirling vortex swallowed him up, trapping him in the dark nothingness of the shadow realm. Reluctantly, Yami closed the portal, silently moving over to sit on the couch and wait for the sounds from Ryou's bedroom to die down.

Mokuba, who'd watched all of this and still wasn't sure he understood the significance of all of it, moved to sit down by Yami. "I'm sure everything will turn out all right…" he murmured, trying to be comforting.

Yami remained silent, concerned with his own thoughts at the moment.

Finding himself suddenly suspended in the bleak realm of shadows, Bakura sighed and stared up through the dark haze where a ceiling should have been. "Well…  that's not quite how I would have liked for that to go…"

**

Everything was right with the world again.

Yugi woke up slowly, with one of those feelings of utter peace one gets when they're still half dreaming. He didn't even have to open his eyes to know that life had once again righted itself to its previous state of perfection. He was snuggled up warmly against his lover, and things were good. It didn't even matter what he and Kaiba had fought about anymore; he was back in Seto's embrace, and he was happy. 

Perfectly happy, until his lover he was clinging to so tenderly suddenly rolled over a little, and his long hair brushed over Yugi's arm. Last time Yugi had checked, Seto Kaiba did _not_ have long hair…

He was suddenly completely awake, and the world no longer looked as peaceful or beautiful as it had a moment ago. Yugi sat up fast, staring in horror at where he was, and most importantly, who he was with. 

"Yugi?" Ryou murmured, sitting up and rubbing his eyes sleepily. "What's the matter?" 

"Oh my god…" Yugi whispered, staring at Ryou, then down at his own state of undress. "What have I done?"

Ryou frowned, brows creasing with worry. "You, ah… don't remember? Or did you say that in a more I'm-really-disgusted-with-myself-for-sleeping-with-Ryou-even-though-it-seemed-we-were-both-into-it-at-the-time sort of way?" 

Yugi was verging on panic, and Ryou really wasn't helping any. Though if he wasn't so busy debating whether to hyperventilate or not, he'd probably have realized that there wasn't much Ryou could have done to be helpful, given the situation. Except maybe turning out to really be Kaiba instead, and then having the whole mess turn out to be just a very vivid dream. Yeah, that would have fixed everything.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, that didn't happen. So Yugi went back to his original plan; panic. 

"I… I gotta go…" Yugi pushed back the covers, quickly scooting out of bed. 

He was halfway to the door before he realized he was still naked, and a mad scramble to recover all his clothing quickly ensued. Finally dressed, though hardly composed, he quickly rushed out of the bedroom. Leaving Ryou nothing to do but miserably watch his one-night-stand run away from him like a bat out of hell. 

"Well," Ryou murmured to his now-empty bedroom, slowly getting out of bed to get dressed as well. "That's not quite how I would have liked for that to go." 

**

Yami stood up as Yugi shakily walked into the living room, looking a little traumatized.

"Yugi?" Yami murmured, moving toward his hikari. "Are you alright?" 

Yugi looked over at him, as if just realizing someone was there, like he was waking from a daze. "Y-Yami?" He took a few steps forward, hugging Yami tightly. "Yami… I did a bad thing…"  

Yami sighed, holding his small other-half protectively. "Come on, Yugi… I'll take you home."

Yugi nodded and just allowed Yami to lead him, his gaze fixed on the floor as they left. Mokuba hurried out after them. 

It was a while before Yugi looked up to realize they were actually going in the wrong direction. "Yami? This isn't the way to my house…" 

"I'm taking you back to Kaiba's. Where you belong. Or am I mistaken on that?" Yami's tone indicated he really didn't believe he was mistaken. It also didn't leave much room for argument. 

Yugi was too drained to argue, anyway. After all of this, being back with Seto was the only thing that could make him happy again. Hopefully, with both Yami and Mokuba there, somehow they'd convince Seto to take him back. 

"Seto will be really happy to see you, Yugi!" Mokuba added, hoping to clear some of the tension. "He's been so broken up since you left him. He won't even go to work!"

"Left him?" Yugi echoed in confusion. "But I didn't-" 

"Hey!"

A call from across the street interrupted Yugi. They looked over to see Duke Devlin running over to join them. Yami sighed slightly; he really wasn't in the mood for this now. 

Duke looked a little confused as to why everyone looked so glum at the moment. "Er, hey Yami. I've been looking for you all day. Is… anything wrong?"

"…perhaps." Yami shook his head, thinking back to having to trap Bakura in the Shadow Realm. Yes, something was definitely wrong. But he didn't want to talk about it now. "We're headed for Kaiba's now. It… may be a while." 

At the look of disappointment on Duke's face, Yami gave in. "You can come along, if you like…" Yami offered. 

Duke was delighted to join them on their little excursion. And so the four of them continued on to the Kaiba estate. Mokuba of course had lived there long enough to be unaffected by the rich splendor of the place; Yugi was too depressed to notice anything around him; Yami was stressed out and rapidly becoming quite tired of everything, and that left only Duke to be awed by the magnificent structure as they approached. 

Mokuba led the procession up to Kaiba's bedroom, knocking lightly on the door. "Big brother?" When no reply came, he opened the door and peered inside.

Seto Kaiba was fast asleep in bed, though oddly, he was fully dressed in his day clothes, and looked to have been tucked in. Ignoring the anomalies, Mokuba gestured for the others to follow him in. 

Yugi swallowed, looking at his ex-boyfriend nervously. Not giving Yugi a chance to escape, Mokuba just grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the bed. 

"He looks dead," Duke murmured, frowning thoughtfully at Kaiba. Yami sighed, gently taking Duke's arm and leading him out of the room.

"Seto?" Yugi whispered, sitting down on the edge of the bed, lightly shaking Seto. "Seto, wake up. It's Yugi."

"Yugi?" Kaiba woke slowly; all memory of being in the shadow realm with the Guardians was only a hazy, retreating dream. Yugi smiled down at him tentatively, and a great sense of relief washed through Seto. "Oh, Yugi…" He sat up fast, hugging the diminutive duelist tightly to him. 

Yugi was back where he belonged, and Kaiba couldn't have been happier. Yugi had come back to him… _his_ Yugi…

Only suddenly, he remembered that Yugi wasn't his anymore. Yugi belonged to Ryou now; Seto had seen it, in the Shadow Realm mirror. Disgust and loathing killed Seto's relief, and he pushed Yugi away.

The pained confusion in Yugi's eyes was too painful to look at, so Seto didn't. "Get out of here, Yugi."  

"But-!" Yugi hugged onto Seto's arm, refusing to be thrown out. "No… Seto… it's not like that, I didn't mean…"

"Yugi… what I said to you before on the phone… I didn't mean it." Seto clenched his eyes shut. "But if you can so easily replace me with another… then maybe we don't belong together anyway. Please… just go." 

"…but…" 

"Go!"

Yugi turned and fled, rushing past Yami and Duke and Mokuba waiting outside for him. He ran all the way home, taking no notice of anything around him, his eyes too clouded with tears to see. 


	11. On Unstable Ground

On Unstable Ground

**

"Marik, quit it!" Joey laughed as he fumbled with his keys to unlock his front door. 

"You never used to mind it…" Marik murmured with a mock-pout, ignoring Joey's command to quit groping him. With one hand still busy trying to unfasten Joey's jeans, Marik took the keys from his boyfriend's hand and unlocked the door. 

Once the door was open, Joey lightly slapped away Marik's wandering hands, walking inside and refastening the top button of his pants. "How many times do I gotta tell you; _don't_ do that where Serenity could see us! I don't want her thinking her brother's a raging pervert."

"But you are, and she already knows that," Marik replied casually. "But if you insist; the bedroom's better than the hallway…"

Joey shook his head. "Not today. You heard what I told Yugi. I'm not gonna let _you_ distract me during the time he may need me."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard…" Marik muttered, flopping down on the couch, the grabbing Joey's arm and pulling him down as well. He resumed his efforts to get Joey to change his mind about the whole no-sex vow.

"Stop!" Joey commanded, trying to struggle away from his boyfriend. "I mean it! I'm not givin' in to you until Yugi gets some."

"I'm sure Yugi's gotten laid by _now_," Marik purred. 

"Are you nuts? It's only been thirty minutes since we left him. He and Kaiba are not gonna make up in thirty minutes, no matter how badly they oughta…" 

"Well, maybe not with Kaiba," Marik mused, a smug smile on his face. "There are plenty of other people around he could have fucked." 

"Like who, Ryou?" Joey asked. Then he frowned. "Though Ryou was dressed awfully strange for just trying to cheer Yugi up."

"There, you see?" Marik continued fighting with the unyielding zipper of Joey's jeans. "Ryou wanted into Yugi's pants, so Yugi got laid, and now you can. Quit struggling." 

"No way!" Joey smacked Marik's hands again, pushing him away. "I know Ryou; he's _way_ too shy to do anything like that! And Yugi's all heartbroken over Kaiba! He's not interested in sleeping with anybody else now." 

Marik gave up trying to remove Joey's clothing and argue with him at the same time. "Well, maybe if they both got just enough of a push…" 

"A push? What are you…" Joey's eyes widened. "Tell me you didn't!" 

Marik just blinked at him.

Joey groaned. "You _did_! You jerk!" He grabbed one of the couch pillows and started pummeling Marik with it. "You lowdown dirty sneaky bastard! I don't believe you! You _mind-slaved_ them?!"

"No!" Marik cried, trying to shield himself from the pillow. "I just… gave them a little magical point in the right direction. Which… sort of led them straight into the bedroom." 

Joey glowered at him, throwing down the pillow and holding out his hand. "Give it."  
  
Marik stared at him. "Excuse me?"

"The Millennium Rod! Hand it over." 

"Now Joey…" Marik began, "you know what happened the last time you tried to take it from me."

"I don't care if I DO mind-slave you! It's one thing to repeatedly mess with my mind, and entirely another thing to do it to my friends! Now give it!"

Marik was silent for the moment it took him to weigh all his options. Most of his choices involved making things a whole lot worse. So finally he sighed, and handed the Millennium Item over to his boyfriend.  
  
Joey glowered at the Rod, then at Marik. "Now get out of my house."

"But Joey!"

Joey held up the Millennium Rod threateningly. "Don't make me break this over your thick head!"

"Alright, I'm going!" 

**

Mokuba sighed, watching his brother mope. After Yugi had run away, Yami and Duke had gone after him, leaving Mokuba to try and talk some sense into Seto. Which was fully what the younger Kaiba brother intended to do. This had gone on quite long enough. 

"Seto," Mokuba said, walking further into the room. "That was a very stupid thing you just did."

Seto's gaze snapped to him, staring. "Excuse me?" Since when did _Mokuba_ tell him anything he did was _stupid_? 

"Yugi came back! I thought that's what you wanted. But instead, you chased him away again," Mokuba shouted. "Why did you do that?"

Seto shook his head. "I had my reasons." 

"Well whatever those _reasons_ are, they're not good enough," Mokuba said. "Seto… Yugi makes you happy. Really happy! It used to be that you only cared about two things; me, and yourself. Then you started spending time with Yugi, and all of a sudden you smiled more. And acted like a real human, instead of the snobby CEO corporate robot of KaibaCorp. And I want my human brother back!" 

"You don't understand, Mokuba…" Seto said softly. "Yugi doesn't really want me anymore. He replaced me! I don't know what he was here for earlier, but it wasn't because he actually cares what happens to me. He has new boyfriend now."

"You mean Ryou?" Mokuba blinked. "How do you know about that?" 

Seto shrugged. "It doesn't matter." 

"Yes, it does. Marik and Bakura used magic on Yugi and Ryou to make them be together. Yugi was really upset about it too, because he loves _you_, and he felt awful for being with Ryou even if it wasn't really his fault. That's why he came back here! Because this is where he belongs." Mokuba glowered at Seto. "When you got together with Yugi, he became my big brother too, and if I gotta take care of BOTH of you, I will!"

"Wait, Bakura and Marik did WHAT to Yugi?" 

"Setooo, pay attention!" Mokuba folded his arms. "You still love Yugi, right?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Then go and get him back! And don't come back here until you do!" 

Seto was silent for a long moment. And then he smiled, the first smile in what felt like ages. "You know, Mokuba, you're right. I don't know what I would do without you." He pushed away the covers, trying to smooth out all the wrinkles in his clothing as he got out of bed.

Mokuba smiled. "Hey, that's what little brothers are for."  

**

"Well, what do you know…" Midori murmured, smiling faintly as she watched the little exchange between the Kaiba brothers through the magic shadow realm mirror. "I shoulda hired the little squirt to talk sense into Seto in the first place. Mokuba's a real charmer." 

"Would you quit hogging the mirror?" Ruby asked sullenly. "I need to make sure Joey is alright. You know how unpredictable the Millennium Rod can be." She tried to push the larger dragon form of the Blue Eyes White Dragon out of the way.

"Oh, chill out," Shiroi muttered, pulling Ruby's black tail. "It's only dangerous if he 'activates' it. And Joey Wheeler may be a little dense, but he isn't stupid. _I'm_ the one that needs the mirror next; Yami trapped Bakura in the shadow realm! There's no air in most places, and all sorts of freaky things wandering around in there!"

"Yeah, like us," Ruby muttered. "Bakura's a 5,000 year old spirit, I _don't_ think he has to worry about breathing. And last I checked, he could take care of himself." 

"Would you guys shut up?" Midori snapped. "I'm trying to-"

"We found him!" The Dark Magician rushed over to the group, a little out of breath. "We found Yugi's Guardian." 

"Wonderful!" Midori grinned. "Bring him over here."

"Well, you see…" The Dark Magician sighed, stepping to one side to reveal the tiny Duel Monster that had followed him over like a little puppy. "This is him."

The Kuriboh cooed happily, waving its little paw. 

The dragons by the mirror stared at the creature for a moment. It was Midori who broke the silence, huffing a little in annoyance. "Well. No _wonder_ Yugi used to get beaten up all the time…" 

Kuriboh glowered, and bit the Blue Eyes White Dragon on the foot. Midori raised her leg, watching the little beast dangle from her paw. "I rest my case." 

"I'm sure he did his best…" the Dark Magician murmured. "It's not his fault he's smaller than everybody else." 

"But _still_," Midori muttered. "This is ridiculous. Get everybody together; I'm calling an emergency meeting." 

**

Yugi didn't have any idea how he made it home without getting lost or hit by a car or something. On his run from the Kaiba mansion, he hardly took note of his surroundings, until he suddenly found himself on his front porch. After a moment of numbly fumbling through his pockets, he remembered that he still hadn't gotten a new key made to replace the one he lost. 

He leaned against the front door for a moment, trying to wipe all the tears from his eyes. He'd _known_ Seto would be mad at him. Seto didn't ever want to see him again. Miserable and feeling more alone than he ever had in his life, Yugi tried to think of what to do now. 

He was probably light enough to climb up the drainpipe and get inside through his bedroom window… except he really didn't want to go in there right now. It had been ages since he'd actually spent a full week in his own house. Most of the time… he just stayed at Seto's. Most of his stuff had even been put away in boxes to make more room. This wasn't his home anymore; it was just a house. And going in there would just make him feel more lonely. 

Suddenly, he couldn't stand this place anymore. Yugi had to get out of here. Away from _everyone_. Someplace where not even Yami could find him. He couldn't live in this world where Seto didn't love him. He just couldn't. 

_Someplace else_. Where could he go? After a moment, he realized he was clutching the Millennium Puzzle tightly, as he usually did when he was very upset. That's it. With the Millennium Puzzle, he could go to the Shadow Realm. It was so huge there _no one_ would ever find him. Not even Yami, if he left the Puzzle behind…

Yugi didn't really know the proper way of opening a portal into the Shadow Realm. It hadn't ever been something he'd been interested in doing before now. But with enough concentration, and the burning _need_ to get somewhere else as fast as he could, somehow he must have convinced the Powers that Be to have pity on him. A small, fizzling portal opened up, the edges sizzling with the effort to stay open. But it was enough. Yugi pulled off the Millennium Puzzle and laid it on the porch, to the left of the welcome mat, and without a second thought, leapt through the portal.

With almost a sigh of relief, the portal crumpled and closed behind him.  


	12. The Challenge

The Challenge

**

The Shadow Realm graveyard was a strange, confusing place. And _boring_ too. Bakura had given up trying to read the inscriptions on the countless tombstones. The writing changed too often; ever shifting between names and dates and mourning for the dead. Most of these people probably didn't even exist, Bakura reflected. Probably just figments of someone's imagination. 

No, the Shadow Realm had lost a lot of its intimidation factor for Bakura. After he'd hog-tied the Reaper of the Cards, there was very little left for him to do. Wandering around the graveyard, it was very easy to get lost among the graves, and then suddenly find yourself right back where you'd started. 

Bakura had lost track of time a long while ago. So he was quite surprised when the very fabric of the dimension started to rip, sending trembling shockwaves all through the Shadow Realm. Some of the tombstones fell over, landing with heavy thuds and angry cracks of stone as they broke. 

"What the hell?" Bakura muttered, waving away some of the smoke the dimension disruption had caused. "It can't have been a few days already…" That certainly couldn't be Yami coming to get him… Yami had enough skill not to cause disturbances like that when he opened portals to the Shadow Realm. So who…?

The Reaper of the Cards suddenly began to struggle against the ropes Bakura had tied him up with. He certainly hadn't had any luck with making certain Bakura would be trapped here forever, but maybe he could get this _new_ intruder to his realm…

Bakura rolled his eyes, grabbing the Reaper of the Cards' scythe and cracking the duel monster soundly on the head with the blunt end of it. The Reaper went limp, and Bakura wandered off to find who had just entered the graveyard. 

The ground of the graveyard was starting to warp the closer he got to the center of the disturbance. It began as only little ripples on the ground, but soon the earth became unstable. Bakura found himself slogging through what had once been solid ground, now turned into some form of murky swamp. Whoever had made this portal to the Shadow Realm obviously had no experience whatsoever, and their poorly crafted portal was warping the very fabric of the realm. With a raw, wild portal, the creator may not have even survived the trip over. 

Remnants of the half-closed portal floated partially submerged in the swamp it had formed. It was a tortured thing, a tear in the Shadow Realm's reality that was struggling to close and right itself, yet held open by the will of its creator. 

Where was its creator, anyway? Bakura was wading waist high in gray-green muck now, trying to ignore the slimy things that brushed up against him. As he neared the portal, he could see something floating in the mess near it. A child's body, by the size of it, he thought. Whoever it was looked to be half dead, though it didn't help that he was covered in the sewage-colored mud, either. Curious as to their identity, Bakura wiped some of the muck off the child's face.

"Yugi?!" Bakura grabbed the mucky body, pulling it closer for further examination. It was Yugi, without a doubt. Unconscious, and possibly bleeding somewhere from the dark stain starting to color the earthy swamp. "How the hell did you get yourself here?" 

Yugi groaned, spitting out some of the swamp muck as he struggled weakly against Bakura's hold. He opened his eyes dazedly, blinking at Bakura. 

"You're a mess," Bakura muttered, glowering at Yugi in distaste. "What were you trying to do, kill yourself?"

"Maybe…" Yugi groaned. "Hadn't… quite decided yet…" 

"And what did Yami have to say about your flinging yourself into the Shadow Realm like this? He couldn't have approved."

"He doesn't exactly know…" 

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Yeah, figured as much. Well, come on, let's get you out of here." 

"No!" Yugi wrenched away from Bakura, though the swamp prevented him from getting away too fast. "I don't want to go back! Seto hates me!" He began to cry, his tears leaving muddy trails down his cheeks.

"Is that what this is all about?" Bakura muttered. "Look, nothing's hopeless until your love is _dead_, and not always then, even. You're giving up too soon."

Yugi blinked his watery eyes at Bakura. "You think I could get Seto to love me again if I went back home?"

"Not looking like _that_, you couldn't," Bakura pointed out. "You look like you've been rolling in a sewer, and you don't smell much better. I suggest taking a shower before you run off after Kaiba." 

Yugi giggled, then glanced at the fizzling remains of his portal. "I don't think I can get home… it took all my energy to make that, and it wasn't even very good. It'll be a while before I can do it again, and I might cause the same problems going home as I did here."

"You're just lucky I'm here," Bakura said, reaching to lightly touch the portal. 

He lightly ran his fingers over the frayed energies, soothing and straightening them, and the portal stabilized under his hands. He'd had plenty of experience with Shadow Realm portals, and though Yami had confined him here, he could still use the basic shape of Yugi's wild portal to get them both out. The swamp around them began to dry out and drain, and soon Bakura and Yugi were standing on solid ground again, the last of the swamp much drying in flaky scales on their bodies. The repaired portal stood open and stable before them. 

**

Yami was feeling very uneasy as he walked home from Kaiba's mansion. Yugi wasn't answering him through the mind-link they shared, so either his hikari had blocked him, or taken off the Puzzle. Or worse… but he didn't want to think about that now. This day probably wasn't the most frustrating he'd ever had, but at the moment, it sure felt like it. 

Aside from worrying about the problems Yugi was having at the moment, Yami worried about Bakura. He kept telling himself that if anyone could handle themselves in the Shadow Realm, Bakura could. But for some reason that didn't alleviate the knot of dread that was currently making Yami feel a little bit nauseous. 

Duke Devlin walked beside Yami, feeling like an outsider in this whole mess. He'd never really been in the 'inner circle' of Yugi's friends, and so all the nuances of relationships within that group was a little lost on him. Even though he was right next to Yami, it felt like they were a million miles apart.

"Yami?" Duke asked softly. "Are you alright?"

Yami cast him a glance that suggested that the former Pharaoh had forgotten Duke was there. "Yes, I'm fine." 

"Really? Because you seem a little stressed out," Duke pointed out. "Maybe after we check to see Yugi's okay, you and I could… I dunno, go out and do something? Maybe have dinner?" 

"Duke," Yami said quietly, "this really isn't the time…" 

Duke sighed. "Yeah… I gathered that…" 

Yami sighed, rubbing his forehead and hoping that if he pretended he didn't have a migraine, it would go away. With all of his other worries, he'd forgotten the complication of Duke Devlin's attraction to him. "Listen, Duke, so long as we're on the subject… it's flattering that you seem to like me so much, but-"

"But you're in love with Bakura," Duke said with a sigh. "And there's really nothing I can do to change that, is there?"

"I'm sorry, Duke…"

"Nah, it's okay," Duke said, half-forcing a smile. "I've sort of been expecting that from the very beginning. I just… I guess I didn't want to believe it. But I'll be alright." 

Yami nodded, falling silent again. Despite Duke's assurances of being okay, Yami knew it would probably be something he'd have to deal with later. But for the moment he had more pressing problems. 

As they neared Yugi's house, something golden glinted at them from the front porch. Guessing at what it was, Yami started to run, taking the stairs two at a time before scooping up the Millennium Puzzle. He traced his fingers over the design on the Puzzle, then unlocked the front door and hurried inside.

"Yugi!" he called, racing from room to room, searching for his distraught hikari. "Yugi? Are you here?"

"He's in the shower," came a familiar voice from the living room. Bakura smiled at Yami, walking in from the other room. "Hello, Pharaoh." 

"Hello, Tomb Robber," Yami greeted quietly. "What happened?"

"You mean, how did I get out of the Shadow Realm?" Bakura asked.

"Yes," Yami agreed. His hands tightened slightly around the Millennium Puzzle. "Unless there's more."

"There is. Somehow, little Yugi managed to transport himself to the Shadow Realm, and couldn't get himself back out again," Bakura explained. He shrugged. "I just happened to be around, so I sort of… helped out." He examined Yami's face critically. "Are you mad I didn't stay in there?"

Yami thought about it, setting the Millennium Puzzle down on the coffee table. Finally he sighed, and smiled at Bakura faintly. "Bakura, it has been a particularly trying day. When all of this mess is sorted out, I plan on not getting out of bed for a week." His grin broadened slightly. "You're welcome to join me, if you wish." 

That was as close to a direct invitation as Bakura was likely to get, but it was all he needed. "I may just take you up on that offer, Yami." 

**

Yugi pulled on a clean t-shirt, which still smelled faintly of fabric softener, and decided he felt a bit better. Bakura had claimed first use of the shower the moment they'd gotten home, but thankfully the former tomb robber had left him plenty of hot water. Four washcloths were now unfit for further use after he'd cleaned all the Shadow Realm swamp muck off of himself, and he thought his skin even looked a little pink from all the scrubbing. But the simple act of getting clean had lightened his spirits marginally. 

Just as Yugi was finishing dressing, someone started pounding on the door downstairs. Yugi considered going to answer it, but decided he didn't want any visitors. After everything that had gone on in the past few days, he was sort of ready for some alone time. 

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Someone had answered the door, and a few moments later Yami came upstairs. "Kaiba's here," Yami announced gently. "He wants to know if he can talk to you." 

"No," Yugi replied tiredly. "I don't want to see him. Tell him to go away! He doesn't want anything to do with me anymore, why is he even here?"

Yami watched him quietly for a moment. "I know he hurt you, Yugi. But you two can't keep doing this to one another. Mistakes have been made here, but don't make another one by allowing this cycle of hurting continue. At least hear what he has to say?" 

Yugi sighed. "Alright. You can tell him he can come up."  

Yami nodded, returning downstairs to pass along Yugi's answer to Seto. A few moments later, Yugi heard what could only be Seto Kaiba's footsteps coming up the stairs. He took a shaky breath, trying to brace himself for whatever it was Kaiba had to say to him. 

"Yugi?" Kaiba asked as he came in, and if Yugi didn't know him better he would have sworn there was a note of hesitancy in his voice. "I wanted to say… I… well…"

He was trying to apologize, Yugi realized. And having a particularly difficult time of it. After what he'd said to Yugi before, Yugi wasn't entirely sure he was going to help make it any easier for Kaiba.

Unable to utter the word 'sorry,' and currently drawing a blank on an appropriate synonym to replace it, Seto gave up and just held out a small package to Yugi. "This is for you, Yugi."

A little caught off guard, Yugi took the box and opened it, revealing a neat stack of Duel Monsters cards. Drawing the first card off the deck, Yugi recognized the face of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. The next two cards were Blue Eyes White Dragons as well.

"This is your deck!" Yugi murmured with slight awe, hurriedly putting the three cards back on top of the deck, trying to hand the box back to Seto. "I can't take this, you put your whole heart in this deck…"

"Exactly," Seto murmured. "And I want you to have them both. The deck, and my heart. Keep it." 

Yugi looked down at the cards, so silent Seto was unsure he'd accept the gift. He expected Yugi to throw the cards back at him at any moment. Instead, Yugi smiled.

"Prove it," Yugi challenged.

Seto blinked at him. "What?" 

Yugi held the cards out to him again. "I am challenging you to a duel. If your heart is really in these cards, then prove it and win. If you win, I'll come back to you."

"And if I lose?" Seto demanded softly. 

"Then you'll leave me alone."

Kaiba was silent a moment, then reached to take his deck back from Yugi. "I accept your challenge."  


	13. Of Love and Duel Monsters

Kat: And now, since this is the very final chapter of Comedy of Errors (yay, we made it!), my lovely assistant Foxfire and I are going to do the dedications. 

Foxfire: To start, this is dedicated to the one and only Cola-kitty, for without her, Kat probably would have never written any Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction past "Matchmaker Millennium." 

Kat: And to Mick, whom I hope will be happy enough with this chapter that he won't go and tie me to a flagpole for being so lazy with this story.

Foxfire: This is also dedicated to Kael because we love him, and Red because he plays with me. And oddly enough, to Chelsea, because Kat has an unhealthy obsession with him…

Kat: Eheheh… And to the rest of Sanctuary that reads this story! And of course, to all my non-Sanctuary readers, assuming I have any. I haven't gotten as many reviews for this story as I have with my others, so it just makes me wonder… Anyway, to everyone reading this, um… thanks for reading! Leave a review and let me know who you are!

**

Of Love and Duel Monsters

**

Of all the duels Seto Kaiba had ever played, this one was most certainly among the most important. As he'd been making the arrangements for it- for impromptu battles weren't exactly Kaiba's style- Seto had wished he still had the confidence in his dueling skills like he once had. The only thing that really gave him hope was that he was playing against only Yugi; Yami was watching from the sidelines, and was not to give help to either opponent. Just because Yugi was the reincarnation of the King of Games, didn't mean he was as _good_ as the King of Games… right?

Seto had this feeling that that was probably exactly what it meant. 

An arena had been chosen for the duel; the exact same one as Seto had duel Yugi for the first time, after he'd destroyed Yugi's grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Seto had some hesitation about using that particular arena; it didn't exactly have happy memories attached to it. But Yami had quietly commented about things coming full circle, and so Kaiba had finally decided the place was appropriate. 

Everyone had shown up to watch the duel. All of Yugi's friends, but none of them were cheering. Yugi guessed that it was because none of them knew which duelist to cheer for. Only Mokuba had no hesitation about cheering for Seto. And so the duel had begun, in that oddly subdued atmosphere. Yugi said nothing as he placed down his first monster in defense mode, his expression not giving Seto any clue as to what his opponent was thinking. 

"It's going much like their first Duel," Yami commented as he watched with the others. "Those decks are almost exactly the same as the first time they faced each other."

"But Yugi won that first Duel," Joey said. 

"Because he had Exodia," said Yami. "And he doesn't, this time. It may be a disadvantage… or it may not be."

Joey glowered at him. "Do you _always_ speak in riddles?" 

Yami flashed him a slight grin. "I like riddles." 

"You know, sometimes I wonder how you put up with Bakura. And sometimes, I wonder how Bakura puts up with _you_," Joey murmured. He frowned then, and looked around. "Where is Bakura, anyway?" 

Yami shrugged as he watched Seto's magic card counter one of Yugi's attacks. "Said he and Marik had something to take care of…" 

**

"Joey's not gonna like it that we broke into his house," Bakura pointed out. Not that he really cared what Joey thought, but he figured he'd point it out anyway.

"He'll get over it," Marik answered. "Besides, we need _two_ Millennium Items, and Joey still had my Millennium Rod. You don't really think Yami would have let us borrow the Puzzle, do you?"

Bakura smirked at him. "If I asked him nice enough, sure." 

"Well we don't have time for you to ask him _nice_ enough," Marik muttered. "We're late enough as it is."

It wasn't too hard for the two of them to get into the building itself, since they were both friends of the duelists. Well, friends of only one of the duelists. Actually, they weren't precisely Yugi's friends, even, but it was close enough. It was a little more difficult to be admitted into the restricted area, however. But with a little Millennium Rod persuasion, they were both allowed through the door marked "Authorized Personnel Only." 

If Joey was going to get mad about them breaking into his house, he would _really_ not approve of Marik's method of getting backstage. But as Marik had pointed out, they were in a hurry, and he figured Joey would approve of knocking the security guards out even less. 

The dueling arena was set up on a platform, and Bakura and Marik were safely hidden in the shadows below. They took a quick glance up to see who was winning- Seto was, but just barely- before they moved on to their more pressing business.

Ryou caught sight of a brief, golden flash in the shadows below the dueling arena. He frowned slightly, glancing at Joey standing beside him. "Did you see that?" 

"Yeah, Kaiba's about to get his butt kicked," Joey answered with a grin, his gaze focused on the duel. "Just as soon as Yugi plays-"

"The Dark Magician," Yugi announced calmly, summoning his favorite duel monster. "Destroy Seto's face-down card!"     

Seto smiled grimly as he watched his face-down monster be blown away. It hadn't been important; getting the Dark Magician out into the open was. He eyed Yugi's three face-down cards with some suspicion, making a few guesses at to what they were. He knew enough about Yugi's deck and playing style to know which cards Yugi favored to play along with the Dark Magician, and none of them would be particularly pleasant for Seto should Yugi play them. 

Kaiba didn't like how this duel was going. So far, he'd been doing fine; it was a closely tied game, and Yugi hadn't made any outstanding moves. In fact, the duel was suspiciously mundane, practically a recreation of their very first duel. And that's what worried Seto. It felt like Yugi was building up to something…  

Drawing a card, Seto smiled to see the first of his three Blue Eyes White Dragons. Sure, he no longer had the grand delusion that his three Blue Eyes were invincible, but they were his favorites, and if anything won this duel for him, it would be them. The only thing that had beaten them in his first Duel with Yugi had been Exodia, and Yugi didn't have Exodia anymore… 

"I play my Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Seto announced, watching his holographic duel monster materialize on the field. Gambling that Yugi didn't have some nasty trap set for him, he commanded, "Blue Eyes, destroy the Dark Magician!"

With a screeching battle cry, the Blue Eyes White Dragon opened its mouth and blasted the Dark Magician with a crackling burst of white lightning. Yugi didn't call up any of his face down cards, and Seto gave a mental sigh of relief to see no trap. 

But the strange thing was, as the Blue Eyes attacked, the Dark Magician didn't vanish in the way duel monsters did when they were defeated. Instead, he was thrown backwards, and landed on his rump. He looked a little disgruntled about it, too.

Lilting feminine laughter echoed around the large room. Seto's Blue Eyes White Dragon was laughing! "Oh dear," the dragon said, in a sweetly concerned tone. "Hansha, are you alright?"

The Dark Magician got to his feet, gingerly rubbing at his abused backside. He smiled and waved to the dragon. "Just fine, thank you. Bye!" He bowed, and vanished from the field, as Yugi's life-points decreased from the loss of the monster. 

Seto stared, trying very hard not to gawk, at that strange exchange between two Duel Monsters that were supposed to be holograms. He could see that Yugi was just as shocked as he was. Kaiba heard the Blue Eyes suppress another giggle, and the dragon turned her head to wink one of her blue eyes at him. "Relax, Kaiba," she murmured to him, as he recognized her voice to be that of Midori, the dragon that had taken him briefly to the Shadow Realm. "I'm here to help." 

"How HoHow did they summon real duel monsters?" Yami wondered aloud, frowning at the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Summoning real monsters to a duel took a lot of strength and power from the duelist, and certainly Yami had never heard of anyone summoning a duel monster _accidentally_. Neither Seto nor Yugi looked strained from having summoned the Blue Eyes White Dragon and the Dark Magician, and they both seemed surprised by the monsters' appearance. 

Yami's gaze scanned the area around the arena, noticing a faint golden glow down in the shadows around the podium. Bakura and Marik had their Millennium Items pressed up against the side of the arena, using the items' powers to link the real world to Shadow Realm, allowing the summoned monsters to pass through.

"How interesting…" Yami mused. Bakura caught Yami watching, grinning up at him. Yami smiled back. "Interesting indeed." 

Yugi drew another card, smiling sadly at it. Seto had a sinking realization of what that smile must entail. Whatever Yugi had drawn would win him the duel.

"I play these," Yugi murmured, pulling a second card from his hand to go along with the one he'd just drawn, summoning them both to the field. "These two pieces of Exodia." 

_Two_ pieces? Yugi couldn't summon Exodia with just two cards…

"Heyy, those are the two I pulled out of the ocean," Joey said. "But what good are just two pieces?"

"There's more than one way to summon Exodia…" Yami murmured.

"And," Yugi continued, "I activate my three magic cards. 'Bone Gate,' 'Graves of the Shadows,' and 'Song of the Forbidden One.' Played together, these three cards allow me to summon the rest of Exodia, even if I don't have the cards in my deck!" 

The three face-down cards flipped up, glowing white as they activated. A huge doorway looking to be built of human bones appeared, which the two summoned pieces of Exodia disappeared into. The sapphire-black light of the Shadow Realm swirled inside the doorway, leaking out like a dark mist over the playing field. Even the massive doorway was not large enough for the huge form of Exodia, the bone structure fracturing and breaking off in huge pieces as he emerged. 

Once again, Exodia the Forbidden One stood across from Seto, that twisted leering face grinning just the same as it had the first time, and in all of Kaiba's nightmares following his first defeat. All hope was lost…

"I've lost…" Seto whispered, staring up at the huge beast and waiting for Yugi to order the final blow. Despair wrapped around his heart like a death shroud. He'd lost, and soon he would lose Yugi forever… 

"Seto?" asked the soft voice of his Blue Eyes White Dragon. "Seto, look at me."

Seto managed to tear his stare away from Exodia to blink at Midori. The dragon watched him with her icy blue eyes.

"If you trust me, you will win," Midori said. "Do you?"

Kaiba stared at her, his gaze slowly sliding back to Exodia, the harbinger of his defeat. He swallowed, looking back at his dragon. There was no _way_ three Blue Eyes White Dragons together could defeat that monstrosity, much less only one…

"Do you?" Midori asked again. 

Seto closed his eyes, and nodded. "Yes."

"Then send me forth." 

"Exodia," Yugi commanded from his side of the field. "Obliterate…!"

"Blue Eyes White Dragon," Seto called as Exodia moved to attack. "Go!"

Midori spread her wings and flew forward, descending in front of Exodia. As she landed, her form changed, her dragon form transforming into that of a beautiful white-haired lady dressed in a silvery white gown, the transformation complete just as her feet touched the arena floor. Exodia's eyes followed her, his massive energy glowing around him, though he held back his attack. Midori looked up at him, then slowly sank into a graceful curtsy. 

The intense aura around Exodia faded as he took a step back, slowly bowing politely to her. She held a hand up to him, and he knelt on the ground, touching her palm with his fingertip. 

"Exodia?" Yugi whispered, staring. Was Exodia disobeying his command to attack? 

It seemed he was, as a new glow engulfed the mighty beast. Exodia stood, holding out his arms and vanishing, as he sacrificed himself rather than attack the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Yugi's life-points ran to zero. If Exodia could forsake everything else in the name of love… well, certainly mere mortals could, as well.

"I lost," Yugi whispered, tears forming in his eyes, a contrast to the smile on his face. "I lost!" 

"I… won?" Seto whispered, staring at Midori. She turned back to Kaiba, winking a blue eye at him again, before she too disappeared as the duel was ended. 

"Seto!" Yugi called, as he hopped off his dais and ran around over to Kaiba. Whatever Kaiba had been expecting, it wasn't Yugi's tight, happy hug. "Seto… I want to come home now." 

Seto smiled, a real, happy smile, as he hugged Yugi back. "Yes… let's go home." 

Up in the audience, Mokuba cheered. "Victory party at our house!" he announced. 

Seto glanced at his little brother, groaning softly but giving in without an argument. As long as Yugi was there… there was plenty to celebrate. And after everyone had gone home, they could celebrate in private… 

"So what was up with all the shadow realm-y special effects?" Joey asked as Bakura and Marik came up to join the group. 

"Just to make things a little more interesting," Bakura said. "And it did tip the odds in Kaiba's favor."

"That was… very nice of you," Yami murmured, smirking.

Bakura glowered at him. "I didn't do it to be _nice_…" He spat the last word as if it left a foul taste in his mouth.

Yami just nodded, though he didn't look as if he believed it. "No, of course not. My mistake."

The party was great. Mokuba ended up playing host, since Seto was a little too busy not leaving Yugi's side to do so. Everyone agreed it was a fine victory party, though considering the huge amount of junk food Mokuba produced from wherever he'd been hiding it from Seto, it was a wonder the younger Kaiba brother wasn't sugar high all the time. 

Everyone seemed to be having a very good time, except a few. Duke Devlin was in one corner, watching Yami with Bakura a little mournfully. Ryou was in another corner, his attention focused on Yugi with Seto, a little troubled expression on his face. It did dampen the mood a slight bit.

And Joey was watching Marik, wondering why the keeper of the Millennium Rod was watching Ryou and Duke with that maddening smirk on his face. Marik moved through the crowd, and without a word, grabbed Ryou's arm and dragged him out of the corner.

"Hey!" Ryou protested, interrupted from his Yugi-watching. "What are you doing?"

Marik didn't answer as he pulled Ryou across the room, over to the corner Duke was currently inhabiting. "Duke, have you met Ryou?"

Duke blinked at Marik, then looked over at Ryou, starting to smile a little slowly. "Well… not formally, no." He held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Ryou."

Ryou blushed a little, shaking Duke's hand. "Pleased to meet you, too." 

There was a silence, as both boys studied one another. But it wasn't an altogether awkward moment, as both of them were pleased to discover the other was quite nice to look at. 

"Say," Duke said, interrupting the quiet. "This party's kind of boring, what with the guests of honor ignoring everybody else to hang all over each other. How about you and I go to a movie, maybe get some dinner… you know, have an all-out night on the town?"

Ryou smiled at him, a little shyly, a little pleased. "Sure… I'd like that." 

Marik smiled in satisfaction as he watched the two of them leave together. Joey smirked, moving over to Marik's side.

"Ryou and Duke?" Joey asked. "Together?"

"Well, they looked a little lonely," Marik said, casting a sideways glance over at Joey. "Besides, stranger couples have happened." 

Joey smirked. "Like us?" 

"Yeah… like us." Marik frowned a little. "Are you still mad at me?"

"Mm, nah…" Joey said. "Yugi's back with Seto, Ryou and Duke aren't moping anymore… everything in general seems to be working out pretty well."

"So I can come home?" Marik asked.

"Yeah, sure." Joey grinned at him. "But you're sleeping on the couch for the week."

"Hey!"

Joey laughed. "Heh, but don't worry. If you get 'really' lonely, I'll come out to comfort ya. There's enough room for two on that couch…" 

"Come on, guys, we're getting out of here," Bakura announced, walking over with Yami. "Kaiba and Yugi are too busy mooning over each other to pay attention to anything, and the sappiness is making me nauseous." 

"Yeah, lets get out of here," Joey agreed. "Hey, Yugi! We're outta here. See you at school Monday?" 

Kaiba glanced over at Joey, wrapping an arm possessively around Yugi and smirking a bit. "I wouldn't count on him being there, puppy… I may just be keeping him right here for a few days."

Joey laughed, ignoring the 'puppy' comment. "Yeah, alright. You be nice to him, Kaiba, or you'll be real sorry."

"Yeah," Seto murmured, smiling softly at Yugi. "I know I would be." 

**

Now this was a happy ending, Yugi decided. It was late, and Yugi was too exhausted to move. Thankfully, he didn't have to. He burrowed under the covers a little more, resting his head on Seto's bare chest and listening to his boyfriend's heartbeat slowly calm. As soon as everyone had gone home, Seto had carried him upstairs and proceeded to apologize in a deeply pleasurable way. Now, he was very content to just blissfully slip into sleep, curled in Seto's warm embrace.

However, it was apparently not meant to be.

"My goodness," a soft, female voice murmured. "Are you two through now?"

Seto groaned, reaching under his head for a pillow to throw at Midori. "Go away." 

Midori laughed, dodging the pillow. "Come now, I just wanted to come by and say how deeply pleased I am for the both of you."

"Then go away, and come back to say it in the morning. When we're _dressed_," Seto muttered irritably. Yugi squeaked, realizing how naked the two of them were, pulling the blanket up to his nose. 

"Right, right…" Midori said, laughing still. "Oh, and Exodia sends his regards as well. He does hope you're not too mad at him for earlier, Yugi."

"No…" Yugi whispered, blushing a little. "It, um… all worked out for the best, really."

"Oh good. Exodia's been chosen to be your new Guardian, by the way, Yugi," Midori chatted calmly. "Yami doesn't really need _eight_, after all." She giggled at the death-glare Seto had leveled on her; he was in no mood for her gossip. "Alright, I can see you two are busy. I'll just be going now. Ta-ta!" She vanished, her laughter still ringing faintly in the room for a moment more. 

Seto grumbled, reaching for another pillow to put under his head to replace the one he'd thrown at the Blue Eyes. "Damned dragon…"

"You should be nice to her," Yugi murmured, smiling a little as he snuggled down to sleep. "You wouldn't have beaten Exodia without her."

"I would have found some way," Seto murmured sleepily. 

"Hey, Seto? If you had lost, would you have really left me alone?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba thought about it for a moment. "Probably not. Would you have wanted me to leave you alone?"

"No…" Yugi murmured, smiling. "I'm glad you won. All through the duel… I was kinda hoping you would. But I couldn't go easy on you."

Seto smiled. "Mm, and I wouldn't have had it any other way." 

**

THE END.


End file.
